Inauguration Interviews: Trump's Talent, Democratic Rebrand & more with House Whip Emmer, Reps Swalwell & Khanna

25:36But let me ask you another question. Do you think an align with Elon's point of view and some of the stuff that's been promoted, that there's a big push by the Democrats to keep the borders open, to create more voting Democrats in this country, that that's a big reason or rationale for the alternative of having illegal immigration and converting everyone to legal. I think it's more basic than that. I do think there's a political element to it. States like Minnesota, where the traditional educated, what entrepreneur is leaving, they're being replaced with, in many cases, with the illegals, right?

26:14Because we are a sanctuary state. Right. So they come into Minnesota, whether they vote or not, that there is a big, there's a big argument that, yes, many of them are. But I think the bigger issue is how Congress is divided up. You're losing, you're hollowing out whether you're Illinois or you're New York, you're hollowing out your state. They bring illegals in and incredibly our senses calculates them in the numbers. That doesn't make sense. No, so you got these blue states that's the gerrymandering cartel just to try to run out of the numbers. Yeah, I guess that's a longer conversation. We probably need to wrap up in a minute.

26:51I have a totally different question. Something more fun. The job of WIP was totally romanticized after house of cards. Exactly. You got to kill people. Well, no, because you had to, that's basic. You had spacey in this really famous scene. You got an interesting, Paul and the whip and saying, when I was with, my job was to whip the votes. And then he was screaming at the phone with the votes. And I just remember this thinking now, that seems like a really cool job. His nickname is Chairman Dick Taylor, just, you know, he was voted like number one commentator by Xi Jinping, the Chinese Communist Party in the first round.

27:25I have a lot of important people in the country. Yes. But just the job of whip, is it as enjoyable as it sounds? So everybody likes to say to me, you've got the worst job in Washington DC. I think the speaker has the worst job in Washington DC. That guy can be having a great day and he's got all kinds of people that are just throwing sandwiches at him all the time. The majority leader does a calendar, manages the floor, works with a chair's, a great job, the whip. You don't get to do anything those guys want to do unless we can actually get it across the floor. And the world has changed. I know they elected me because they thought my personality is very direct.

28:05I am from Minnesota. I get the sense that you're incredibly effective. You could whip the votes. But you just got to be honest and you got to respect everybody. And it's a different world because we probably have 40 % of our members who will vote for whatever Mike Johnson says we're going to put on the floor. But we got 60%. And this is what's been changing over the last couple of decades. It keeps getting larger. They didn't come here to follow somebody. They came here to lead to represent their people and they need to be involved in the process and what I tell them all the time I don't care if you like each other.

28:37I don't care if you despise one another I don't care if you socialize together or the second you walk out of here You run to two polar opposite places when you're here the American people elected Donald Trump and we have the benefit of A major open the votes But that's what it is and I tell you got to get over yourself We're going to let everybody participate in the process. We're going to take all of your ideas. We put the more centrist part of our majority and the more right wing part of our party together and that list of savings cuts offsets I was talking about. We privately run that through small groups one at a time so that they can talk to each other right.

29:20So that if you come from a Ruby Red District down south and I come from a, you know, Swingy Swingy District in New York, we can have a conversation about why I can and can't do something and why you will and won't do something. And at the end of the day, this is how you're successful. Everybody wants to be involved. It's hard only from the aspect that you can't afford to leave anyone behind. Last question. When you saw the last week was pretty prolific in terms of the Senate confirmation hearings that started, I think we're still waiting to figure out when Bobby is going to come up. Do you see any pushback?

29:56Who do you think... Who might not make it? Who might not make it? I think everybody's making it. I think anybody that listens to you guys or anything that interview where they start saying, bringing this up, we got to remind people, this has been the left's playbook since Robert Bork. Yeah. They started it with Robert Bork. They took him out of his Supreme Court appointment. They did it to Clarence Thomas. They really did it to Kavanaugh. And look at this. Now they've moved it to Cabinet picks. And Pete Hankseth is a great example. None of us is perfect. But all of that was anonymous. And I think once it started going through the process, somebody asked me this question a few weeks ago.

30:38I said, yeah, they're starting with Pete. Pete's going to get through the process. They'll move on to Tulsi. then they'll move on to Bobby Kennedy Jr. Those will probably be their three biggest ones that Bell attack. I mean, my perspective on this is that to your point, in the absence of somebody being compromised, it's not an ideological difference that should stop cabinipics on either side. Whoever is a president should get to pick their team. Put the team on the field. That's the mandate he was given by the people and then the people should get to vote. It's supposed to be an advisory capacity, right?

31:09I mean, the expression of law. It is, but the beauty of what Donald Trump is doing. you can't fix what's broken with people that broke it. He's going outside of this, God forsaken place and bringing people in that have completely new ideas, whether you let them or not. Come on folks, let's see what this does. We've been doing the same thing now for years. Which by the way is what happened 250 years ago in this time. Okay wait, Congressman, last question. Give us the more last one. Because we have done this one. An opinion you said you listened to the fire episode that we did. But just general, from the outside in as a Minnesota looking at California, just diagnose what's going on there.

31:46It's more complicated than the right and the left want to make it seem. But there definitely is a problem. It's not just limited to California. It's across this country with not managing our resources the way we should. We had this problem in northern Minnesota probably 20 years ago, 25 years ago. We had a blowdown in the BWCA, the boundary waters canoe area. You had all those trees laying down. They were kindling, right? And I think our governor at the time, Jesse Ventura, say he was going to go in there and he was going to log it, right? So we could protect the citizens of their property and we could actually make use of these trees that have been destroyed in the storm.

32:28The federal government told him he couldn't do it. And of course, we've had fires, right? California, this is tragic. My brother -in -law sent me a picture. He lives in Woodland Hills. He sent me a picture of flames at the end of his cul -de -sac above the border. That's where my parents lived. They probably lived a couple blocks from each other. In Woodland Hills. Yeah. The fire stopped two blocks from their house. Yeah. That's the picture he took. Yeah. Did the winds just take? No so the Ventura County line comes up to right there and the fire department didn't and I, I, I, Cal Fire and Fire Department are incredible.

33:00They stopped it from entering the neighborhood. That's amazing. It was amazing. I know how his house is still staying based on pictures. Thomas has been amazing. You fit right in here and appreciate the honesty and candidness. And we've reached out to you back anytime. I appreciate the conflict. I love that. Well, I mean, I think the American people have heard of that. Well, he got motivated. We went through a Spotify dinner last night and they were talking about journalism. He's like, I'm a journalist. I'll show you guys. I can be journalist. I think it's a really important conversation. And the one thing I'm a little concerned with is just some clarity because Trump has an ability to say things in a bold way, in an effervescent way.

33:38And then sometimes these things actually affect people and they want a little more clarity. Well, and the whip has to find clarity amongst 219 people. Yeah, good luck with that job. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. You guys are fine. Thanks. Okay, everybody, welcome back to the all -in podcast. We're here for the inauguration of Donald Trump in his second term, and we're Delighted Tap, Eric Swallow. With us today, he is obviously the House Representative from California in the Democratic Party. You guys got your name? East Bay. East Bay. East Bay. You guys got shalacked this time around. Well, great.

34:16Wasn't good. What are the lessons that the Democratic Party can take from this? I will insert myself into this a little bit. I'm a moderate who's voted Democrat two out of three times. I was absolutely really disappointed. I'll just leave it at that, that you didn't have a speedrun primary, that Biden was put up when he was clearly in cognitive decline. and I'm absolutely disgusted by the Democratic Party's hatred of successful entrepreneurs in this country. You've kind of lost me as somebody who voted two out of three times. Why has the Democratic Party left me somebody who, you know, two out of three times would vote Democrat?

35:04And now you hate as a party, entrepreneurship, winning, and you seem to hate democracy and you won't even have a primary. Don't hate democracy. No, but this is my perception. I think a lot of Democrats feel this way. It just looks you. Silicon Valley, they've also a lot of folks. No, I mean, this is across the board. There's a lot of middle of the road folks. I just, yeah, we need a story that connects with everyday Americans. I think when you look at a lot of the policies that we believe in and you look at polling and focus groups, people are like, oh yeah, I like that. I like that. I like that.

35:43But our story right now, I don't think we know who we are and who we're fighting for. Now, so it is, to me, exciting that we can go through this reset and renovation to find that story that connects. I'm a blue -collar kid. I was raised by a cop and a mom who had six different jobs. I was the first my family go to college I like to do a race by two Republicans. Yeah, I was they they they were they are were in our two Republicans and I've got three little brothers for cops and I grew up in Dublin California everyone called it scrubbing until we invested there and we saw success Well, it's your ideological change growing up in a Republican household of cops essentially yeah to becoming a, you know, you're a bit of a democratic poster boy.

36:30Well, that's only because I've gone after Donald Trump, but if you look, I ran against the most liberal member of Congress, Pete Stark. I have been a pretty independent vote in Congress, and I root for success of entrepreneurs and business, and want to connect that success to the people who work hard at those businesses is so everyone does well. And I think if we're just perceived as rooting against success overall and vilify people who are successful, then no one can be successful. If that's the case. Did you agree with Biden's framing as he was leaving about this tech oligarchy? It's only an oligarchy if working class folks don't benefit from it.

37:16So if that's what it becomes, then that's a problem. What I want to see, and I think what you all are rooting for, is that anyone, if you work hard, work your ass off, you should do better for yourself and dream bigger for your kids. And I think we have an opportunity to do that. The president, the president -elect, has an opportunity to make that happen. And where he tries to do that, he'll find a partner in me. But do we have this branding issue? Yes. No, I think that's the branding issue. Yeah, let's the brand. Yeah. So, the woke is him. Is it the judge mentalism? Is it the sanctimony? Is pandering?

37:50Is it the moral grandstand? Yeah, to be perfect and pure is what the perception is right now. But nobody's perfect. No, no, no, that's the percent of people who like like we're all with ears and of course we're not perfect and pure. But I need the perception is that to be a Democrat, you have to check all these purity boxes and then you can be a part of the party. And right now the Republican party is like at the exact opposite. It's like, do you like Donald Trump? Great. Come to the party. And so, by the way, if you don't like Trump, can we get you on these three policies? And you can still come to Peter Till's party.

38:25I have never been more courted by a political party than Trump's. And I have never been more hated than I've been by the Democratic party. That's wrong. And I shouldn't make you feel that way. Shemaah feels that way. I think he was a major donor. You guys are talking about having a, you guys are saying you should have a Joe Rogan equivalent. You had Joe Rogan. He was a Democrat. If you want to know that they were all he had Bernie Sanders on your channel. You guys fumbled it. You guys had Elon Musk. You fumbled it. Yeah. Well say the party fumbled it maybe you can come Well, you represent the party and we have and we have talked about rebuilding and we have a this We have an opportunity to rebuild that and so on for example the Department of government efficiency like we should root for government to be more efficient and we should try and enable that but like if that effort goes into an area where it's going to cut social security or cut, you know, Medicare, then I think you'll see us be guardians against that.

39:24But like most small businesses think it's pretty smart to start a small business and then once you do, you don't have the resources that bigger businesses do. And they see regulations as what gets in the way. So we should try and knock them out. What's happening in the party? Like, what are you guys doing? Or is it just headless as an organization? Yeah, who runs a Democratic party? I would say in the House right now, Hakeem Jeffries has been pretty effective at uniting us. And even in the last Congress, you saw something that you've never seen before in any Congress, in our country, in any parliament in the world, which is the minority party delivered the majority votes on every vote of consponsible.

40:02So keeping the government open, lifting that that ceiling, which the incoming president now supports, which we welcome that, and we would love to get rid of it, by the way. the funding of, even the funding to Israel, that move forward because Democrats were unified on that front. So I think Hakeem has shown himself as a practical negotiator, someone who can work with Mr. Johnson. But I think the other fair commentary is he's young and he's inexperienced. What I mean by leadership is who is the elder statesman that can help push and cajole and influence the Democratic Party to find a more solid ground.

40:47I think one of our best thought leaders is Mark Cuban. I think he's Mark Cuban. Mark Cuban. He's very influential. I think a lot of relationships with my colleagues and myself. He has business experience, but I think he's also not lost touch of what regular people care about. And I thought he was an effective surrogate for Kamala being out there on the trail, but I go to mark on a lot of stuff and I think he Understands where most people are how did Kamala get selected? How does she get slightly so she was vice president and the runway was about? 100 days and I we can go through the different scenarios.

41:26I don't think any of them were good and as you said if if if your premise is that President Biden should not have run for reelection, making that decision that close to the election, you know, I don't know if any candidate would have come. Did you know, Eric, should there be a speed primary like Jake Hall? We could go through 100 scenarios. There are a bunch of great candidates. I still think all of them would have probably been set up to fail. Did you two short of a run one? So in your interactions with the President, did you say to yourself, gosh, what's going on here? I didn't in my colleagues and I don't think we interacted with him that much.

42:04That often and we kind of you know we started his presidency in COVID and so the Joe Biden that I knew when I was and a baby you know child in the Congress in 2013 was very engaged and you know love meeting with Congress and the meetings would go an hour over the time a lot and it was kind that Bill Clinton charm offensive that he could put on. I will just tell you, the first two years with the COVID restrictions that we had, we didn't see that because we would have remote meetings with the White House. I'll just... They headed. I don't know. I know what you're saying. I mean, the report's our he was gate -capped.

42:49I'm focused on the future. Let's talk about the future. before we talk to Doge. Eric, you're on the House Intelligence Committee. Yes. Let's talk about TikTok. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Done and Dustin. What do you think might be back tomorrow? Might, might not. Yeah. You're in the room and these things happen. There are these off the record, I guess, intelligence briefings that happen. And this was a 9 -0 unanimous Supreme Court decision. It was an overwhelming majority in Congress. Can you just help us understand what needs to happen for something like those two events to happen? It just be general. You don't have to say specifically obviously and disclose anything that you know, but we're just trying to understand how does something when it's such a rankerous Congress, which can't seem to agree on anything, or a Supreme Court which tends to be 5 -4 on every issue.

43:45Finds a 9 -0 and a supermajority in Congress. Can you just help us understand? So the Supreme Court was not saying whether we should ban or not ban TikTok. They were saying that Congress voted President Sin and there's no way around this ban. So I think they were just following the law. I voted against the ban. I think China is the place where you ban things. And the problems that I have with TikTok is a father of like three little kids are the problems that I have with meta and the problems that I have. Yeah. It also. So you don't view it as a security risk for the United States. And I look to Jim Himes, who is the senior Democrat on the intelligence committee, the right -to -members.

44:24He's in what's called the gang of it. He has the most exquisite access to intelligence. And Jim voted against the band. And I thought, you know what, if this guy is not seeing any of that at the national security level. There was an off the record or confidential briefing to the House of Intelligence. So you think in that meeting there was nothing that was very meaningful that was disclosed about TikTok? Nothing that I had seen. Is it owned by the Chinese government? Absolutely. But is there a national security risk? I have not seen that. Well, don't a second, though. I mean, if the Chinese government owns a hundred million plus American phones, their location data, access to their microphones, access to their cameras, how is that not a security risk?

45:07And where, I mean, that seems incredibly naive to say that. I want to build on what you can say. We know that there are security vulnerabilities, for example, in WhatsApp. It's riddled with stuff. So you could send a PDF before, then you could send an image. Now you can just send a message and you can root your phone. The difference is WhatsApp is owned by an American citizen. I really, and so what we just to say, all these apps are compromised. It's just that the TikTok is owned by a Chinese owner who is out of the reach of the United States government. Yeah, and is that fair or unfair to you?

45:39It is out of the reach of the United States government. But what I will say is most of what we buy as far as what's in our basket at Walmart has a Chinese component that's in our basket doesn't have a microphone. Or you're using a lot of it does. Have you seen a lot of stuff you buy? Drone? Do Chinese made drones? There's a whole website now that breaks down modern consumer electronics from China that actually have these hacking devices built into them. I don't know if you've seen this. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, like you'll buy like a USB charger that's like eight bucks on two move or something and it's inside It's got like an IP address and it actually finds Wi -Fi it connects and it transmits.

46:19Yeah, this is incredibly And like there's so many and I bought this like cheap drone for like Christmas someone For like anyway one of the mind a little nephew's brought it and I'm like do this thing is like 149 bucks And I looked it up online. It's like got camera connects your Wi -Fi and then asked for access to your phone Oh Dave's and I'm like it's I'm not doing that like yeah I tweeted this a few months ago. I only kicked off the issue the US BC charging cables Exactly. Those could be high jack to be rid of. Yeah, they're rooted at the charging cables Yes, this is more reason to be a good reason to be a bad guy.

46:50This is not speculative No, I don't think I don't think ticked I guess my point is like yeah, yeah You want to ban everything that's being tried. That's great. You'll destroy the economy exactly But one thing has a hundred million people in an algorithm that could influence people's perception. Yeah, that that, you know, that, that Hamas is being harassed by the Israelis. Like they, they literally can change how Americans, especially young ones, perceive the world. Even if they're not doing it currently, do you not see how obvious it is that they can use it? That's a censorship point of view, which is, I guess I'm the only one of the four of us that doesn't want to ban speech.

47:28Yeah, I'm no, I'm no, I don't need that. I want to I want to bet I want either reciprocity when we can put our apps in China or I want a gone Maybe the different case now you're saying it's like reciprocity as opposed to controlling first you were saying It's security then you're saying it's like controlling our point of view now. You're saying reciprocity You're like those aren't the same thing here's a lot security security risk likely lies everywhere on security I think controlling the point of view of stuff. I think you guys have to separate look TikTok talk, there are three things in TikTok.

48:01There's the content and the content creators. That's one thing. Then there is a network effect. And then there is the vessel, which is the app, which is the code. My very specific point of view is the content creators and the network effect can easily be replicated in other places. The vessel itself is corrupt. And I think if you can't technically see that, But it's probably because you're not steeped enough in the technical. You'd be intelligence committee doesn't technically see that. Oh no, they've been caught. They've been tracking a journal on a grant hand. But I also looked at the small business owners who use that as a platform.

48:42I understand how you just the buckets you just created. People depend on it. And what I was telling the White House was more people watch President Biden's state of the Union address on TikTok than anywhere else. And the president Biden had just gone on TikTok. But that's why I could. But that you're speaking to is the content and the net. Sure, no, I guess by point is, across meta or across X, my preference would be X. You can replicate the network effect, and you can create a mechanism for those content creators who are already on those platforms anyway to shift. My point is the vessel itself is easily rooted.

49:13I told this to President Trump when we were sitting down, I was like, that phone, the microphone on that iPhone can get turned on remotely. you can choose what state actor wants to do it, but I will bet you dollars to donuts. It is inconceivable to me that the NSA did not find that capability and the reason is not because TikTok is bad or good. The reason is all of these apps are rooted. The only difference is that most of these apps are controlled by American citizens. So there is fallout. And this app is not. I mean, I think Donald Trump is going to allow TikTok. Well, he got a $50 million donation from Jeff.

49:52Yes. That and I think he also recognized. I think for back 50 million. Yes. And I think the reason he cares is because he knows a lot of his followers are on there. And they didn't shoot. They have not. You know what? I was a very popular exported from China. Sentinel. Yeah. And it was probably bad. That too. Yeah. Well, we, I mean, the fact that it's popular should not be why we are doing that's why I think you're framing. Yeah. That's a lot of popular. It's what I'm saying. It's a dip. It's a dip. It's a I'm going to take a look at the bottom of the page. You're going to take away a platform that is widely used by Americans.

50:22It's a week. It's not week is chosen to go to those other ones. And I just don't think we banned things in America. Yeah, but this is the Chinese Communist Party. Jason, if you actually didn't they spy on their own citizens? Just think about this for a second. If your business depended on you using TikTok, how would you feel about the TikTok? And you're not simply for the most important thing. You guys have to assume that if it is true that the CCP uses the Chinese version of TikTok as a mechanism to surveil their own people. The idea that for an extra few units of resources, they would spy on the most important powerful nation in the world.

51:02To me, seems pretty illogical and dumb. They would do it. And separately, it's not to say that President Trump is using TikTok per se or important people, but it is true that when you have enough people using app, and those people come into contact with other people, like, look what happens today. How do you exchange contact information with an iPhone? You touch one another, right? There's an NFC capability to pass code from one to the other. I mean, I just think it's really naive, guys, for us to not assume that technology is very deterministic. There are so many good things that happen, but there are people that are paid to find every single edge and to push it because the stakes are high.

51:46And I just think that this is an assumption that we have to live with. I'm just very cautious when it comes to bands. That's fair. It's an ideological thing. It is a slippery view with you. Because, because, Tomock, where this goes is you're like, well, I don't want to import Korean cars because they've got electronics that are connected to the internet in every Korean car. Now the Koreans can spy on where we are. I mean, you can very quickly see how this can open up a floodgate of banning because foreign adversaries could take advantage of what is exactly including. Including what we do, which now we're including banning chip imports, including banning router imports.

52:16You can very quickly make this happen with routers. A whole literally the number one thing we know about it. I know why it's like this. Like, it's too literally already added work on equipment. We're going to go down a very nasty place. Like if you could put that in. down an intelligent route which is to not give access to all of the personal information of the sons and daughters of representatives of military experts to the Chinese Communist Party. This is a set of Huawei is banned in America. Yes. Security vulnerabilities were found. They don't have our best interests. They don't have our best interests.

52:46You think that it stopped there China like gave up and said, oh I'm saying there's a different quiz. I asked go watch the dance videos now. It's correct. Let the Americans dance. By the way, it does seem a little fun guys. Isn't the US revenue for TikTok for by dance like 5 % if it wasn't a really Chinese government they would have divested I think it's a 30 and they would give up their golden share US 30 let's move on to the border. Yeah, wait wait, Doge we're gonna do Doge okay? Let's do Doge because you tell us your point of view on Elon vivid coming in what they're gonna do What's good about it?

53:18What you really don't think is gonna have concerns? Yeah, so I do think it's funny that a Committee about efficiency has two people running it But I think it's just, it just cut itself in half with if the VEX running for governors of that is their first success, I guess, to cut the size of the committee. But they got a lot of people that they recruited. Yeah, is they set? Knock yourself out. If you want to make it easier for small businesses to start a business, if you want to save money and... Federal employees. Federal employees not showing up to the office. Look, my staff shows up and we benefit from people being in the office.

53:55So we show a lot of flexibility for people who have family issues, kind of on a case -by -case basis. And people with disabilities have more access to work. But I generally see the benefits of having everybody at the office. And we were one of the first offices to come back on the hill during COVID, because I saw the benefit of that. And if they can draw a straight line between benefiting our constituents and people being in the office, I'm open -minded to that. Eric, tell us about how you think this reconciliation bill, the budget. It's going to be a very knockout, dragout kind of a process. We're going to hit the debt ceiling tomorrow.

54:38And so you guys are going to be back to work right away. What do you expect? What I'm going to be asking my constituents, you know, is tax cuts are proposed and regulations, you know, potentially are cut is, you know, what did you get out of this? and what have you lost. Because if it's just, as I said, if it's just kind of a brola garkey that benefits and you don't benefit, then I won't support it. But if you can draw the line and say, this business getting this benefit or this corporate tax rate going down means that you're going to do better and dream bigger. I can be forward. And so that's what I'm gonna be looking at.

55:17Like do you think generally that governments should generally just have less tax receipts and be forced to spend less to be more ingenious and less overvaliant on overpowering things with money. Yes and frankly a lot of that starts with the Department of Defense. Look at where the cost drivers are. Is that where you look? Yeah. Yeah. But that means you need to have alliances in the world, right? You're gonna have if you're gonna reduce what you spend on defense you better strengthen your partnerships. Some people on the Republican side so I think it's a wonderful point. Some people on the Republican sides say this is why energy is so important for us because when we have resource independence, it actually allows us to forge and recast many of our relationships across that then create a very different security envelope.

56:01I chair the rare earth. Yeah, exactly. I'm in Arles Caucus for this reason. It probably surprises people that a Bay Area Democrat wants to get the U .S. back into mining. That's because we're getting our ass kicked by China on this. on the, you know, not just the mining, but the processing and the magnetizing. But we do have allies who have these resources. So we can do it in the United States. There's a mountain pass where they're doing it with almost 100 % recycled water. So you don't have the acid pond issue, but you also have countries that you could have this. So I help our country to get that thing off the ground.

56:37And I've been out there. And going, it's an incredible thing. But even he will tell you, doing these kinds of projects in America today is almost next to impossible. And the reason he was able to do it, I mean, he has support from folks like you, which are for thinking, but the reason was because it had already largely been built. And he said, if he had tried to get it permitted. And it's just a question, you know, less money for the government, less regulation. It, it almost seems like sometimes, if the Republicans say, yay, the Democrats say nay. And if the Democrats said, yay, the Republicans would say nay.

57:07But if you ask everybody privately, everybody agrees the government should have less, into your point, business people should just have more of a wide birth to actually go and work. And then how do account, as I said, if the wealth is only concentrated at the top, right? So you're a huge guy. Just be sure we can point to people at every part of the economic spectrum. Yes. That's like it, but that's a very reasonable thing to say what you're saying. Well, I hope that's how we govern in this next step. But it doesn't come out that way. Well, I think this is a key point that what you lead with and what you talk about and what you make a priority.

57:42That will be people's perception of your focus. And the perception that I have as somebody who again has voted Democrat to it at three elections is that you're focused on and talking about things like DEI, things like having trans kids get surgery and no parent agrees with this. Nobody agrees with this. They're banning it around the world. And you guys lead with that, That shows a lack of prioritization that is palatable to the voting populace. What they want is effective leadership. And when you look at what happened in Southern California, it is the height of arrogance that they're working on things like DEI and saying, this is important when the reservoir is not filled, when they're not clearing brush.

58:25And you have to make trade -offs in the world. And you guys don't seem to be able to communicate that it's incredibly frustrating for me. You can hear it in my voice that you can't say, you know what? We care about nature. We care about the trees. But you can't have trees on the floor around homes in a fire zone. You said floor, you didn't say ground, so no, I'm gonna listen to you. Or we can't get generals that we're gonna be dependent on China for minerals. We need those minerals. We cannot be dependent on foreign adversaries to make important weapons systems, to make important things like electric vehicles.

59:00And you guys are concerned about the cranes and trans kids being able to get surgery that nobody wants. That's the problem with the party. We need a better story. And I don't think you leave. Stop focusing on those weird things. We need that story with the concerns people have with DEI, although I would argue now, the new DEI is Don Eric and Ivanka, and people probably won't like that approach to it. Either, but you're floating the trot, you're trying to. I'm not sure, but okay. We need a better story. And I look forward to being in the first time.

59:37I mean, there's a long tradition in these parties of the kids being grifters, Hunter, everybody's getting in on it. But let's close on the borders. No, hold on. Before we do that, I just want to ask you about should the United States spend $200 billion to acquire Greenland from Denmark? I don't give a f*** if you try to acquire Greenland. I just want the cost of eggs to go down. That's what my constituents are proud of. not just about. If we don't get green money. We're going to provide security aspects. Of course, there's benefits there. But I just, I want to know, you said you're going to lower the cost of eggs.

1:00:10Eggs are pretty expensive. How are you going to do that? And if you can tell me that, you know, spending $200 billion to get green money is going to help lower our costs. Great. But I think people want to see costs come back. I have a question about today. And I just want to actually go back in time. Today, are there any of President Trump's nominees that really give you Agita and if so, who and why? And who's inspiring? Give some credit. If there's something like inspiring. Who do you like? Sure. Give us one that inspires you and give us one. I think Rubio is going to do a great job in the secretary.

1:00:44So, he has the gravitas and the experience to do it. And I want to see that happen. And Koch Patel is the one that I think could destroy the president's agenda. Can you say more? Well, what I see, and I may be a little bit biased because the guy wrote a book, he listed 100 enemies. I'm not in that 100. I'm actually in the preamble. He starts it with, of course, Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell are the most dangerous people. Well, you were part of the House Russian investigation. But I do believe if the president focuses on going after his enemies, he's going to lose the ability to bring order to the border, to get the most violent, you know, the most violent, undocumented immigrants out of the country, and make people feel safe in communities where they don't feel safe.

1:01:33What do you think about Jason's comment? Do you think that we should systematically work through a process to deport 15 million to leaders? I think you should focus on violent offenders. Yeah, no one's sexual. So let's say you've got done in six months. What do you do after that? Well, you also need order at the border, right? And I support surging resources to bring that. But 40 % of my constituents were born outside the United States. We are the eighth wealthiest district in the country. No thanks to me. I'm not contributing to that well. There is a straight line between those immigrants and that wealth.

1:02:10And so if we can find a way to address shortages is in the workforce, in agriculture, hospitality, food and beverage. Of course, we see it in biotech and tech. I think we can have the best in the world. I actually leave it, leave you with this. A foreign minister in Asia said to me, in the past year, he said, Eric, he said, you know, the population of the United States is three billion people. And I looked at him and I said, no, he means like 300 plus million. I thought he'd misspoke. He said, no, he said, there are three billion people in the world who would give up everything to come to the United States.

1:02:46If you get it right, you said you can pick the best. Absolutely. Recruitment as opposed to immigration is a better framework. Go back, please. You mentioned this. The House, Russia, and the investigation created a lot of talking points on both sides that I think are still lingering. And in the spirit of sort of putting it to bed, any regrets about that whole process? Was there anything substantive that came out of it ultimately or was it the beginning of this more politically directed kind of action reaction, which is now why people are afraid about what happens? No, Russia had a preferred candidate and they did a lot to try and get that guy to win.

1:03:31I think he could have... And I think he may regret that in a lot of his trolling he made himself look guilty When he probably could have shown us that the concerns we had weren't there But I don't I'm not gonna dwell on that. I'm not gonna You know focus on the fact that he was impeached twice and sent a mob that you know could have killed Many of the people in the capital with me on January 6th I'm gonna focus on if he wants to bring order to the border make our community safer and raise wages and lower costs I'm gonna work with you. No, what I meant, what I meant was, I think that's a great message.

1:04:03You can use that. You can use that. Work backwards from an outcome, or do you think you and Adam actually just followed the facts in? I was an Alameda County prosecutor and the same office Earl Warren, you know, worked in. And we were trained that it's not about wins and losses. It's just about doing justice. And I approached it just trying to follow the facts. And when you were watching some of the other things that happened post all of this, like what's happening in New York and whatnot, What were your thoughts as a prosecutor on the legal veracity of some of the things that were going on to to Trump leading into the selection?

1:04:36A lot of people around him went to jail and it felt like, well if Michael Cohen went to jail, like why the f*** is this guy not being held to account? Michael Cohen went to jail for being a part of that hush money settlement. So again, just being a blue collar kid who resents people who think that their position and titles them to be better than regular folks, I just wanted everyone to be true to the same. And so that's the way I was raised. My dad lost his job as a cop when he wouldn't essentially get brides. When you wouldn't allow a bribe from a mayor to influence him and he... Well, that's amazing.

1:05:17That was my early experience. But I'm pretty good. Very small town in Iowa and he was the police chief. The mayor very publicly tried to like, corrupt him and he wouldn't do it. So my earliest memory is that he was willing to lose his job to do the right thing. But you're saying something very important, which is everybody should be treated the same. So. Correct. If one of your kids were charged with a misdemeanor, would you hope that it was just prosecuted as a misdemeanor? Or do you think that folks that may not like Eric Swalwell figure out a way to now make it a felony? The former. Yeah. Yeah.

1:05:46Okay. Yeah. I mean, as I said, I'm going into this open minded, what we can do, I'm just saying into this new year, open minded, not focusing the past on what we can do to make the country succeed. Yeah. And on the border issue, I think that's the one where y 'all could maybe get some consensus and some priority because it really does seem to be creating an underlying tension in the country as to what's going to happen. And you can't do anything on the workforce issues until the public believes you've secure the border. That's just a, that's like, how much of that was why you think Kamala lost was just heard not taking ownership of the border.

1:06:24I just think she was attached to an incumbent party incumbent parties worldwide are just getting pounded and there wasn't much that was going to change where this thing was going. What's happening in California? Well, give us the grade on gathering some in here. Which Republican will be the next governor of California. Well they don't have their sh** together either by the way. The Republican Party in California. Look I was in the palestates on Monday. I have 10 friends who lost everything. I was with a woman who stood on top of a pile of ashes that was her house looking for any memento for her family and it's awful.

1:07:05I will also be open -minded as to what we could have done to prevent it. to prevent it, why resources that should have been there weren't there, and as a member of the Homeland Security Committee, make sure that we're better prepared next time, and if there is accountability that should come to be part of that. But there's fires are still burning right now, and so I don't want to be that man where it's like, the guy that, like last week I was a hostage expert, this week I'm a wildfire expert. Well that's us. Yeah, that's our friendship. Yeah, but my job is to look at what we could have done, who should be held accountable, but with the fire still burning and families, you know, living with friends and relatives right now, I don't want to hop.

1:07:48I don't want to give this a hot take. Yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. Thank you. All right, everybody. Eric, we really appreciate your candidness and it was a good luck. Thank you. Well done. Well done. Okay. Thanks. Awesome. Great job, bro. All right. Welcome back to the All -in podcast at the inauguration of Donald Trump, our 47th president, and we're really delighted to have friend of the pot rocona back on the program. He is the US representative for California's 17th district, AKA our hometown Silicon Valley. How are you, Ro? Honor to be back on. You made it big time. You're now like in DC inauguration.

1:08:27Jason's in Republican. You know, you know, I was a remainder moderate. Jason, I'm holding on to you as the Democrat in Silicon Valley. I'm a lawyer. I've always been a moderate. I like to vote for what I believe is the most qualified person. and this time around, I was what they call in your business a double hater. Let's get right into that with the Democratic Party. You guys got shalacked. The candidate who you put up didn't go through a primary. The previous candidate seemed to be incognitive to climb, we can all agree. It feels like a bit of a mess in the party. What is going to happen to the Democratic Party going forward?

1:09:05Is there a voice saying this is the plan? Or is it a little game of thrones right now? We're all wondering where are the Democrats? It feels like you went dark. And is that a strategy to just sort of let Trump have his moment and then come back and be adversarial or state a new platform? What's going on inside the Democratic Party? I think Christy is our 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 generational leadership. And now that's going to emerge.

1:09:45And so you're seeing it happening in California with Dan Laurie, winning in San Francisco for mayor, Matt Mayhem winning in San Jose. You're seeing new people in Congress emerging, new governors emerging. And so I think that there's gonna 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. What do you think the new platform will be? If you had to think of things to remove from the platform and things to prioritize in the platform, if you were in charge or Dean Phillips friend of the pot as well, there's some people who feel there's more important issues than the ones that maybe you've been focused on, you the Democratic Party has been focused on for this last election cycle.

1:10:38So maybe give us two or three ideas of what you would add to the agenda and two or three things that you might say, hey, this isn't a priority for Americans anymore. I think the whole thing has to be about prioritizing the economy, the economic independence of Americans. How are we gonna have economic renewal, economic growth in a stagnant working in middle class? And then let's argue our different visions. 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 got to 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.

1:11:24But 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 childcare. But I think whoever wins the argument that there's going to lead American the 21st century on the economy and on economic independence is going to win. Bro, you're saying government investment in building new businesses, building new industries is necessary to achieve that vision and that's a better alternative. What is the historical kind of examples where policies or government was going to go start new investments, start fundamentally supporting new businesses being built that's worked successfully and worked better than free markets.

1:12:07Like the Republican argument is the free market is more efficient, the free market works better. Let capital and capitalists find where the capital is best applied, it'll be more efficiently utilized. Versus government making the decision about where capital should go, it's typically lower ROI, very often negative ROI and doesn't actually create sustainable economic growth. I think as a 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. Infrastructure. Well it's infrastructure but it's also manufacturing.

1:12:40I mean I have a bill to build new steel plants in John's town in Ohio. Now you need the private sector. You need Cleveland cliffs. You need a private it's still company, but if we're going to finance that, the scaling of that, the federal government has to have some role. 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 finance with a capital account surplus. That means all that money is coming into the Wall Street. Wall Street is doing really well, the finance sector is doing really well, but it's hollowed out our manufacturing base.

1:13:20It's hollowed out our industrial base. That is free market economics gone too far. That's globalization is what some of the non -neocounter -publicans would say is that global trade versus cut off some of the global trade, create a tariff program with China and will reignite manufacturing. That's kind of a counter -policy argument, but to your point, it's a different point of view that uses different set of data to make the case. And I'd agree with some of this strategic chairs. 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.

1:13:58You think we need government programs? I think we need government partnering with the private sector. And on D -reg, so, do you feel, and does the party feel, that there should be no deregulatory effort in the United States to unleash economic investment and growth? or like this whole point just for, you know, it just feels wrong to me to say like we don't want the right like shouldn't D right be a thing that we're always cutting back things bureaucracy bureaucratic red tape that we've created to unleash I mean even Gavin Yousens making this claim now in California. 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.

1:14:40I mean the money didn't get out fast enough. There were the bureaucracy in permitting was slow. And if there are ways to make government procurement more competitive, that is good. 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 % 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? The S. Pate Gelsinger was asked to leave in Intel.

1:15:19And I said, is it was at the permitting reform? He said, no, it's that the capital expenditures to make Wall Street's numbers were very high. And there was no procurement. Everything's too expensive in this country. By the way, this goes back to nuclear energy. It's too expensive to build a gigawatt of nuclear power in this country. It takes too long. Meanwhile, China can do it for that attempt of the price. and they're scaling up 300XR rate in terms of new energy production. And they can do it in half the time, half the time, a ton of the cost, and there's a regulatory path for Gen 4 reactor is going up in China versus here.

1:15:53I'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 logic. So this is really important because I think what happens is the Republicans, or their Democrats will come forward with a general policy statement. We need to dereg to unleash economic prosperity or dereg to unleash nuclear. But the other party then says, well, we've got to figure out a way to attack them on that vector. And then they take this like diametrically opposed point of view to try and diminish the strength that they're gaining because of their strong policy perspective that may be good for America.

1:16:33And then we end up in this unfortunate circumstance where we can't ever align on the things that really are good for America. That's how I feel as an American looking at how the parties attack each other. One party says, this is a good thing for America. Why didn't the other party say, you're absolutely right. We always agree on that. Let's move forward. Can you give the win on Doge? Government efficiency seems like consensus. Well, I've gotten criticized because I put out an innocent tweet and I've said that if Musk and Ramoswamy have a good idea, then I want to look at that. And you know, Musk disrupted the entire Pentagon with SpaceX.

1:17:07How many work with Ash Carter to do that? The track record's there. The track record's there. So if he's going to, and you have all of the progressives like me saying the defense budget is blown at 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 slope dispensers. And so now if Musk is, it's really has, Boeing $150 ,000, 60 minutes, $1 ,400 for press pumps. I mean, I think it's outrageous. 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.

1:17:46Or I floated, you know, that Bob Eiger would be a good person to run next time for mayor of LA. He's considering it. Well, I mean, Did he tell you that? Yeah, I don't want to talk about what he what we've talked about probably I just think he'd be you did ask him I did ask him I I and so now I'm getting Attacked for well am I for an oligarch? That's that's literally my my Twitter It's Disney I said I want someone who's gonna rebuild this this place He's it would actually be a public service for him after I'm Eliminate stands on every corner and you know an FD $18 was FDR when we were looking at it.

1:18:24FDR was one of the wealthiest people in John F Kennedy. So I think there's got to be a bit, there's got to be common sense. Yeah. How do we actually help people? That has to be the metric and willingness to work across the island things. Yeah, it does seem in the wake of what's happened in Southern California Pacific Powisades and all the other regions that were impacted. that a large number of affluent and voters and people who are active in politics are now saying, it's kind of enough. The progressivism went too far left. We need really qualified people in office. And so what do you think is going to happen in California?

1:19:07And what impact do you think these 12 ,000, 14 ,000 homes being destroyed? And of course the 25 people who also live tragically, What impact is that going to have is you think that's a turning point in some ways? I do. I mean, first of all, it's just horrific. And I'm sorry you know people have couple of friends who lost their home. They're alive and that's what's important, but they did lose everything. They lost everything and I mean, a place that just burned down into it. 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.

1:19:43Yes. keeping places safe matters, making sure that we're pragmatic matters. And that's why you saw Dan Lory -Win. That's why you saw Matt Mayhan win. 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 LA. 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. I think safety's up there for folks. What else do you think is on that short list of things that the party in California could say to the voters in terms of winning them back and letting them understand you're focused on something other than in their perception, DEI, maybe environmental overreach, I can't believe I'm saying that, but like the fact that people don't believe in clearing the forest around homes and they're fighting it on environmental grounds.

1:20:41Well, I mean, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand, rocket scientists to understand that these wildfires have been occurring for a long time. You have to assault on a science here. You can go into the science of it. And that if you want to live near a forest in a fire zone, you kind of got to clean up the detouriest on the forest floor. or like it feels like we, you know, the leadership in California is kind of pressing company excluded has kind of lost the script here, huh? 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.

1:21:17That's not going after people. And I supported Karen Vass in full disclosure against Rich Coruso. I was proud to do it. But if Coruso asked reasonable questions, the whole point of being in governance is you say, okay, the guy had a good point. You're disappointed in her performance, the fact that she's out of the country. Going back in time, when you have endorsed Caruso knowing what you know now. 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 happening. I think I did, I did, someone like I grew up others. I think there's, I certainly think there needs to be a new mayor.

1:21:50Do you think there was any reason for her to be in Ghana? Well, she says that she went on the president. The inauguration of the president. the inauguration. I she was in a palace having cocktails. Yeah, whether if there were actual warnings before I think she would probably say she should have said it should even be going to Ghana as the mayor of the city that has no economic vacation I suppose. No, that that's a common thing where the president of both parties asked people, mayors governors, I haven't been asked this a congressman yet to represent them at a at a for no inauguration. Yeah, that's a common thing and I don't if they the warnings, I don't think that's a big issue.

1:22:29And she's going to Paris because, you know, the LA is hosting the Olympics. The question is though, your first priority. And if there were warnings, she should explain 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? But the big point about one of the points about, well, 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. I think there was this sense of condescension and that if you disagree with someone, somehow our party is morally superior and that's gotta stop.

1:23:08And this whole thing about if we disagree, the policy generally is wrong, which is I think distinguishing the policy from the party. Do you think California has a chance of electing a Republican governor from 26? Do you think that that chance is now greater than 50 % after the wildfire? 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 I mean, Arnors Schrodinger was a Republican and Ken a Republican who is a pro choice and takes some of the social issues off the table be competitive. Yeah, I think the Democratic Party would be naive to take that for granted.

1:23:53and 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 Mayhen who now have had a couple years and have been effective are the type of Democrats, I think, that can win statewide. What are your thoughts on TikTok going dark in the last 24 for hours here. It's terrible. I've been vocal. We had 1 .3 million people sign a petition. Never had that in order as a magnitude. So keep TikTok. Because they like the product or they make a living. It's, yeah, it's, first of all, the stories about people who make a living.

1:24:34I, there was one person, a content creator, her husband cheated on her abusive marriage. She leaves. She's got four kids, two toddlers, and two people around, two kids around five. and she's broke, she's in a hotel, she's staying in her best friends living room for four months and then she starts telling her story. And now she's making $60 ,000, $70 ,000 of the content creator. I could tell you 50 stories like this so people are actually relying on this for their livelihood. Some people are making it, using it to make rent. And then you have the issue of free speech and just being able to express it.

1:25:10Now people say what about China? Well why don't you pass a broad or a war that says any interference by a foreign government in algorithms is going to be illegal and criminal. Well, India banned these apps. Yes. And we're not India. They're pretty savvy, though. Yeah. I mean, these things are an attack vector. You can remotely control these phones. They were caught spying on journalists. And they could shape public policy. So, and they've had years to divest. Seems to me that the Chinese government sees this as a strategic military asset. Do you disagree with that? I do. I think the United States has a much, much more robust tradition of free speech than in India.

1:25:52And 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 % US ownership. My understanding is 60 % of the investors already are US investors. I will work with him and Mike Wolts. I know very well. We were cultures 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? If the Chinese government spies on their own people, why wouldn't they spy on their adversary, the American people?

1:26:30Well, certainly they would. But the question is, 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 chime out communist parties through data brokers, there's no law against that. So pass a law that old data for Americans if it goes to the hands. By the way, there's US companies that are selling that data, that US companies that are buying that data. Any third party can access that data if they want to buy it in one of the markets. That stuff exists. It's existed for a very long time.

1:27:02And the irony of it is I've built them back to the trade deficit. China's got the same week China announces $1 trillion trade surplus. They're building more drones than us, more ships than us, more steel than us. We're talking about banning this tic -tac app, my electricity. You know what? What about the concept of reciprocity? Would you be in favor of requiring that we have our social networks in China if they want to have theirs here? 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.

1:27:45I don't want to name another app because I don't want to malign other apps incorrectly. 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 to the hands of the Chinese Communist Party, you could have a law right? It's still keeping TikTok operational. Yeah, you litigate the outcome, you don't litigate the method. I don't trust China as much as you, gentlemen, do. Let's talk about it. Jason, it's not about trusting China, and you keep trying to characterize it as like people being pro -China, if they're pro -free speech, or they're pro -giving people.

1:28:22The only platform you can have your make it you continue to make assumptions about security when there are security issues with a lot of apps The security issues of a lot of phones. They don't have the same scale as tiktok That's a great. The scale of tiktok is extraordinary. I tell you where we got the politics room 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 gonna have tariffs and by the way this tiktok thing pretty popular app for young people, we're gonna keep it. What do we do? We do the exact opposite.

1:28:55We have running ads, we don't want tariffs. So we're telling all these folks in the Midwest that were opposed to the policies that could save some of their jobs. And then we're telling all these young people that we wanna be in TikTok. And at some point, they can take the jobs we gave them to. At some point, I think we've got one of the things that Democrats need to do is stop listening to the foreign policy blob in the beltway, you know, pundits, we'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.

1:29:30It's like every person has three groups. And we're listening to them. As opposed to listening to the people. I just popped up five groups, so I was speaking here. You know, and I think part of what Trump was doing, I mean, I, and I, obviously totally opposed it. I voted for his impeachment twice, but it was sort of like in our world, A .B. testing were fast iterations. He put out ideas, he'd get feedback, he iterates, and he may not call it that, but he's just kind of gauging where people are. Let's talk about one of those ideas. Americans want the border secure. There's no doubt about that. The statistics just show it.

1:30:0280 % Americans want it kind of shut down and be orderly and legal, maybe even more. But this idea that we're going to drag 15 million people out of the country as Steve Bannon drag because he continues to. No, I'm just quoting Steve Bannon and Steven Miller who work one of them worked in the first administration and architectures first win and the other one is the most powerful person inside the administration this time. So I'm just quoting people. They say day one 15 million are going. So do you think that's actually going to happen? And do you think it should happen? It shouldn't happen whether it's actually going to happen or not.

1:30:39I don't know is the answer whether they're 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 someone. You say encourage? Do you think encourage or require? 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?

1:31:17But of course, require people to come through the legal process and secure the board. I don't deny that there's been a problem on the board. But and then for those who are criminals here, we're convicted, convicted of crimes, fine, deport people. OK, we all agree on that. Those all seem logical and obvious. But in terms of, so let me tell you someone in my district without telling your name. I think you you tell me what what should happen this first. So she's a she's been in the country. She's on documented She came to to see me with a group of people She's a dental hygienist Her daughter is going to med school.

1:31:53She's undocumented. She's undocumented Do you consider yourself to be her representative? She's not a citizen of the United States She doesn't have a legal right to vote. Are you representing that undocumented non -American person? I am supposed to represent everyone in the district that lives there that the order list of their citizenry. I my my citizenship. But I don't I we don't ask in terms of their citizenship in terms of just being a representative of the area. Everyone I won't but as a Congress member you believe that you should represent non -Americans that happen to the pedomasiled in your region in your district.

1:32:25I don't think 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. So you might have empathy and sympathy for the person living in your district, even if they weren't legal is what you're saying, I think. It's quite reasonable if I'm in Turkey. Yeah, I mean, that's that's a more eloquent way of putting it. But let me just tell you about this, this person. So she's she daughter is in a med school in Southern California. She drives down once a month and drives back because she can't afford a hotel down there.

1:33:01And 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 and what is that going to do to her daughter or do we can't we find a pet? Sounds like a great potential American. So, will the the the alternative point of view someone would say I'll play the the the devil's advocate here. They would say but there is another American who is qualified to be a dental hygienist who cannot get a job who would be getting paid more because they are a citizen and they are legal and documented. This person is undercharging their employer and they are taking a job away from America.

1:33:37And that's what the counter -argument would be for some people. So there are two things. One, I agree that if there's someone who is in a position that is undocumented or even on an H1B 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 and that is when you have a Immigrant as a worker. Yes, you're increasing the labor supply and the supply 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 and I've always viewed this to be more of a demand part of the equation for growing the US population You can actually increase the economic growth.

1:34:24So let's put another on this Yeah, you know So clearly you don't believe these people should be dragged out of the country. Correct. I think we're in agreement on that. Some people are not. Maga 1 .0 on it. Do you believe they should be dragged out? I don't want to put you on this one. No, no, it's not that simple. And I'm really hung over today. So I'm not going to be super articulate about it. What about that dental hygienist who's been here for 20 years? Would you give her an amnesty? I would. It seems like a great American. Yeah, that's so hard. So obviously being empathetic I think for me would always be a priority that person should not lose their job lose their life That's a very hard circumstance at the same time There are a lot of Americans who feel they are getting underpaid that they don't have jobs And there's empathy that I think is part of the alternative side of that equation You know, I wish you know, let me let me ask this question whenever we talk about immigration We never have a number put on it We never have a point, we don't have a point -based system here.

1:35:20So it devolves into this discussion we're having right here, which is, oh, they stole our jobs and wages are down in the face of the lowest unemployment of our lifetime, 4%. And 7, 8 million jobs out there. There's two jobs for every person who's unemployed if you do that basic math. Now, of course, there's some disparity in people having the skills to take certain jobs and geography. Putting all that aside, we have 340 million Americans. Would an easy situation here be to say we will import people based on the need in the country. So if we don't have enough people working in healthcare, we're gonna open up, and if unemployment's under 10%, we'll have three million people coming a year.

1:36:00We'll have two million people coming a year, and just put a number on it, and then have Americans and our representatives debate that number. Why don't you guys do this? Well, I'd say two things. I think my view of why we have lost jobs in stagnation has been the offshoring of so much of our industry in the hollowing out of towns and communities where we just watched as wealth piled up in districts like ours, not because we people in our district stole the wealth from Youngstown or Down River. It's just that the wealth was piling up, industry was being off -shored and there was kind of indifference towards it.

1:36:32And if we want real solutions, we need to have economic revitalization instead of blaming the dental hygienist in my district. Like that's not why, you know, Johnstown or Warren Ohio or Suffering. The broader point though is 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, what categories do you want to increase it? Why? And how do you get people out of these status where they're being underpaid? I do think that's what's hurting is these, 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.

1:37:11And that's hurts the American worker far more than when that's such an important point. People don't understand this about the H1B is they are transferable, but you have 30 days, which makes essentially, as it was explained to me when I was in the IT business, these are indentured servants. And they don't have choice and they have this, you know, threat that they're constantly under. If you don't do what we say as an employer and you don't accept the salary, you're going to be out of the country. Exactly. And you're going to have to take your family with you. Would an easier solution to be to just charge 10 % of the salary into a pool as a tax so people don't abuse it the salaries go up Have a minimum salary and give them maybe a year to find another job What do you think of that?

1:37:50I 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 a Prioritized based on the highest wages because that's a reflective of Talent coming in but you know You don't want to sit like now where you're on a H1 for three years, then you get it extended because you apply for a green card to six years. And then while your green card applications in process, it keeps getting extended. So these folks are here 10, 12 years. And the abuse of it. And my view is, I think the American people are pretty decent and fair.

1:38:26I grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It was 95, 98 percent white. It was a few Indian American families. And I grew up with a belief that you could do anything in America. Look at you and and you know the country trust him in a represent a district with 12 trillion dollars of value of the most economically Prosperous place perhaps in the history of humanity perhaps in the world And right and I I just think that that is America and people are upset at the extremes They're upset at the abuses. They're upset that there was in a process of the border But deep down this country has always been one that embraces is immigration and most immigrants tend to be very patriotic.

1:39:08So when you hear Steven Miller say, America is for Americans and American only. You think that flies in the face of the spirit of this country? I'd say what does he mean by Americans? You know what I wanna do? I'd have to have lunch with him actually. Me too. Maybe I have him on all in. Be great. And I don't wanna join for that if we do. I'd love to. And you know we should all instead of just reading every tweet. You know read Lincoln's. Because I heard he's a guy that if you sit down with him and have a long form conversation, you get a lot more than what the short form media bites have been about him.

1:39:39So I'd actually be really happy. Yeah, no, I would love to have him on because I watch his entire speech and the way he speaks seems incredibly xenophobic and a bit racist to me. So what I would argue, what I would ask him about is what I'm being too pedantic about history is Lincoln has the speech in 1858 on Independence Day. And the challenge for Lincoln is to say, how is a German American or French American American? Because back then, to be American, you literally had to trace one great -grandparent who fought the Revolutionary War. How could you be American if no one in your family fought the Revolutionary War?

1:40:13And 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, Stephen, do you still believe that? What, how are you to find the American? If you don't too, right? I mean, we can have that discussion in America if we're pulling the ladder up now and we're not a land of immigrants. But I agree with you. I'm an immigrant. I think the immigrants are the most patriotic. That's why I believe in it. It's because of you freeberg. Everything of J.

1:40:39Well, I mean, you should because you're on great things and look at your own. You're going to do it for a bit too big of a deal. I'm here from South Africa when I was six years old and I'm hanging out in Washington, DC with a congressman. And how many jobs have you created? I've created a president, a vice president. I get to meet all these people and hang out with them. And you've created thousands of jobs. And you're gonna create billions of extra calories with these amazing Ohana strawberries. Oh hollow I think I think my company might actually be in your district you cover Santa Cruz can No, that's Jimmy Panetta.

1:41:07I see okay. All right. No, no favor. Let me ask you a question You think the United States should spend $200 billion to acquire Greenland from Denmark Denmark has a hundred fifty billion dollar Debt yeah, they can build a public pension plan 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. You know what I mean? Even though we intervene in foreign elections and use military force to overturn foreign governments. Well, nobody's perfect.

1:41:42There you go. There you go. I gotta get this guy on the gig. He's got my tongue. You got it. You got it. You don't need to hide in there. I can't get in there. I can't get in there. When you do your run for governor, by the way, the show has been brought to you, but not only by row, but also Roman going to get Roman Rome. We've got to wrap up. You got to go. I want to give the Greenland. Yeah, Greenland. Yes, so. Well, no, but the question is why what interests does Greenland have? They have critical minerals. They have a lot of important resources. And basically, they want to partner economically with us.

1:42:17They're letting us invest. They're letting us develop it. So what what what do we gain your thing we could achieve our objectives without without it becoming a terrible what about Puerto Rico? First thing you really want Here's here's my cautionary tale. I think this could be the despositive argument Every time Bernie Sanders ran you know what he talked about the politics of Denmark. You really want green Let's stay Denmark They call it getting to Denmark. Now, Greenland is gonna, that's gonna, those two senators are gonna be that kind of sad. If you watch, we're gonna have two years of paternity.

1:42:48You watch the interviews that have come out on Twitter from the people that live in Greenland. They're sick of the socialist, you know, kind of overseers. I think they do want to have a different way of governing. I don't know, man. I'm gonna have more kids if I get two years of paternity. That's pretty amazing. Yeah, but it's, I mean, look, I don't think that you're necessarily getting that, but there's, what about Puerto Rico? It's an important question is like, does, does the United States need territorial dominion to achieve its strategic objectives? I'm open minded. What about Puerto Rico?

1:43:17Well, there are two, like, look, every Democrat is like, oh, we want Puerto Rico, why? Cause you're gonna get two Democratic senators and Congress people. But, I might be, it should be in Puerto Rico, self -referential, self -referential. At 80%, 90 % wanna do it, you be down? Yes, if they wanna join the United States, cause that's a different thing. There we, you know, we basically took that as a territory. Now, let's see what they wanna do. I'm all for it. Let's go straight to 60 states. Are you are you running for governor of California? No, are you? Why not? You've done such a great job. I'm all about you, you're a comment.

1:43:46Not like you, bro. I, I, I, I think there's a, I, I think there's a, I love being in Congress. I love what presenting Silicon Valley and I have been focused on how do we get innovation, technology, partnering with communities to, to have economic revitalization. If you were a guest, would you consider? I didn't see a rumor this week that someone said something that you were. Am I wrong? I think someone may have flown it in a room or I'm trying to get asked by your party and the citizens of California would you consider would you consider? It's just a consider. I consider anything. Okay, great.

1:44:16You know, all right. He can't pay manager. I mean, he's good. Well, I got some good. He's got it at the moment. I'll give him that from him. He's here. He's here. That's a wrap. Okay. From the 47th inauguration of the United States and we'll see you next time. Bye -bye.