Trump Is About to Let Ai Destroy the Working Class, Here's How to Stop It | Ro Khanna

0:00Apple, Google, NVIDIA, Broadcom, and Tesla,$18 trillion. And if you want an America which is just going to put more trillions of dollars in my district, do nothing. If you want an America that is going to help families and kids where I grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where Fairless Works, Steel, Shutdown, which is going to help people in Ohio and Michigan, then we've got to make sure that the AI revolution is pro-American citizen and pro-worker and not just pro-tech billionaires. The guy from Silicon Valley saying this, you've got people like Bannon and Tucker Carlson and all saying this.

0:31And yet my biggest criticism of Trump, my fundamental criticism is he's just got these tech billionaires that are saying, OK, let's sell chips to China. Let's have a White House ballroom. Let's have AI accelerate. And I don't I don't think that's the forgotten American.

0:54all right congressman roe connor it's good to see you again the one democrat who will respond to not just talk to me but respond even when we put these requests out so back to the back in the hot scene i'm a glutton for punishment look at us we look like long lost brothers we're dressed exactly the same it's good to see you it's good to see you and i appreciate the text because people don't realize it's not always like hey how are you doing nice to see you it's what the hell are you thinking you know and i i think that that's healthy you're supposed to have spirited debate and conversation uh and i don't understand why we've all retreated to our corners where we're so afraid of the slightest disagreement or criticism yeah well you mentioned to me right before we started that the the last time we did this we had you know agreement and disagreement on a wide variety of things of course the one thing that went viral was that was the trans thing which we have some disagreement on doesn't really matter let me ask you this to start since you are the only democrat who will talk to me what is going on with your party we're right now in a in a better place than last time i came on i mean we won in the in virginia we won in new jersey won in new york we uh relatively blue places little purplish in virginia but when you look at the swing in the Latino vote, in the Asian American vote, in the suburban vote, a lot of folks have been coming back to the Democrats.

2:17I think it's because of the economy. You know, the president promised that he would lower prices on day one, and those prices just haven't come down. People are anxious about AI, you know, about AI taking truck drivers jobs, warehouse jobs, customer service jobs. As a guy from Silicon Valley, I'll tell you that there's concern, Even Tucker Carlson or Bannon, they said, what are you doing just hanging out with these tech billionaires in the White House? What are we doing on AI? What are we doing to protect workers? And what do you think he's not doing that he should be doing? I mean, AI is coming and the robots are coming whether we like it or not.

2:53Well, the AI is coming whether we like it or not. But the question is, are you going to be on the side of the tech billionaires? Are you going to be on the side of ordinary workers? Like, we should protect truck driving jobs. There are 3 million or so truck drivers. I don't want to see 3 million people displaced. We should have truck drivers on trucks. We should make sure that we have a vision that says companies need to hire people if they're being displaced in the company itself and bargain with workers. So if technology is going to innovate and that we can do this cheaper and more efficiently and all of these things because you simply, I mean, I like truck drivers.

3:34I used to have an AM radio show. It was truck drivers calling all the time. I found them to be incredibly thoughtful and smart, and they're out there listening all the time. But no one is actually guaranteed a job. So if technology is going to make these things more efficient, where does the government come in to force somebody to, oh, you have to have that job, even though this company can do it more efficiently and cheaper and everything else? A fair question. I mean, a lot of times, planes can basically fly automatically. I still like the fact that we've got a pilot. And a lot of the pilots are there in case there's something that goes wrong.

4:07So I think you can... I'm asking you more at a philosophical level than even a functional government level. Look, I look at it as the Industrial Revolution in Britain. For 60 years, you had massive wealth generation. Britain became the richest country in the world. And yet the working class and middle class were horrendous conditions because technology was simply used for eliminating jobs, no consideration for workers. Where workers started to build is when the technology was used not just to eliminate jobs but to make people more productive. So my view is we need a government incentives that help us use technology in a way that's going to make people more productive, not just to displace labor.

4:49And we can talk about how to do that. Sure. So what is that? Like in the example of the truck drivers that you used, knowing that we can automate the truck, knowing that there will be drones so that it's not a human that's going to have to literally drop off the package, knowing that these things all exist and are going to continue to exist. So lay out your version that would be more human friendly. Well, I would say you still have the truck driver on the truck to do maintenance, to do drop-offs, to make sure that you're dealing with edge cases, that we should have a human in the loop. And maybe it makes the driving easier.

5:25Maybe it makes things less burdensome. Or in other cases, if you have a customer service representative, okay, now you're using the AI to be better at your job. But I don't want to be fighting with my phone every time where I'm calling a customer service agent to get to a human voice. So right now we have a tax code that incentivizes automation. You basically get a deduction for depreciation. But if you hire a person, you've got to pay health care. You've got to pay payroll taxes. I would reverse the tax code to make it possible to hire people instead of hiring robots. So you have an incentive, don't have a disincentive to hire people.

6:03The second thing is I'd have human in the loop regulations. You want to make sure human beings are there. If you are going to have some form of automation, workers should share in the productivity gains and the profits. Those are a few ideas. But I, in general, I think that the AI revolution has to be for people, not just for all the money going into my district. We got$18 trillion, David, in my district. $18 trillion. One-third of the entire U.S. stock market is in 50-mile radius in my district. And Apple, Google, NVIDIA. Although, as you mentioned right before we started, a lot of those guys are moving pretty close to where I live right now.

6:37Some of them are moving to where you live, sort of the tax breaks. But the companies are still there, right? Apple, Google, NVIDIA, Broadcom, and Tesla,$18 trillion. And if you want an America, which is just going to put more trillions of dollars in my district, do nothing. If you want an America that is going to help families and kids where I grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where fearless work steel shut down, which is going to help people in Ohio and Michigan, then we've got to make sure that the AI revolution is pro-American citizen and pro-worker and not just pro -tech billionaires.

7:07The guy from Silicon Valley is saying this. You've got people like Bannon and Tucker Carlson and all saying this. And yet my biggest criticism of Trump, my fundamental criticism is he's just got these tech billionaires that are saying, OK, let's sell chips to China. Let's have a White House ballroom. Let's have AI accelerate. And I don't I don't think that's the forgotten American. Let me ask you something. So you've mentioned Tucker and Bannon a couple of times. I am seeing a horseshoe version of politics here. Do you have anything negative to say about Tucker Carlson or Steve Bannon or some of these guys on the right anymore?

7:38Of course. I mean, we disagree on a lot of things. I mean, we disagree on immigration. I mean, I'm not sure they would have supported the 1965 Immigration Act that allowed my parents to come to the United States. we we certainly disagree uh on uh on on issues i mean i very much condemn the roipers and anti-semitism on on the right i don't know where they stand on that so i don't want to put words in their mouth but i would be unequivocal and uh in condemning that so when you spoke at that uh what was it the arab american conference and they were laughing about not uh october 7th and all that you you condemn those people that you were on stage with i absolutely unequivocally condemn the people who said that October 7th was in any way justified.

8:27It was horrific. It is wrong. Which they said on stage just a few minutes after you were. Just to be clear, I spoke at that conference. I spoke at the conference for three days. I mean, for one hour in a three-day conference. They spoke at a future panel. I didn't know about that panel until I saw the clips. When the clip came out, I totally, totally, unequivocally condemn it. Hamas is a terrorist organization. October 7th was a terrorist attack. There is no place for Hamas in Gaza or the West Bank. Now, I've disagreed, as you know, with how Netanyahu has gone about it. But I have unambiguously condemned anti-Semitism.

9:09It was awful, the anti-Semitism attack in Australia, where you just see Jews being targeted and blown up. We don't know yet with Brown what happened, but the professor there taught Jewish studies, immigration studies. And let's see what comes out there. There has been a rise of anti-Semitism, and I fundamentally reject it. And I have always stood for two states. There are people who disagree with me because I've called for a Palestinian state, non-Hamas. But I've also said that Israel as a Jewish democratic state has a complete right to security and existence. Ever wonder why your brain feels foggy even when you're eating clean and staying active?

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10:59oh absolutely i think well tucker particularly i think he's gone off the deep end completely i mean he's also saying consistently horrible things about me personally so but we can yeah we can we can let that there i don't need to waste time on tucker with you um what do you want to see over the next you know i've been having mostly republicans in here where i'm asking them okay what do you guys need so the so that the midterms don't turn into a bloodbath for the republicans so you on the democrat side of that what do you want to see so that it goes well for you guys in the midterms. I want to see us focused on forgotten Americans.

11:30I want us to say the system has been rigged, that a lot of towns were hollowed out. A lot of working families haven't had a fair shot at the American dream. We're going to be the party that brings good jobs. We're going to be the party that lowers health care costs, child care costs, housing costs. We're going to be the party that brings back the American dream. And by the way, the system was rigged against the working class in this country, we're the party that's going to take on that rigged system. I saw over the last couple of weeks, obviously, we've had these Venezuelan boats coming in. And, you know, my position basically has been this is low grade warfare if you're just, you know, bringing in all these drugs into our country.

12:08And I just to me, it's an 80-20 issue for Trump where I don't think that the average person in America cares if you blow up narco terrorists. I saw you wanted to either haul Hegseth in front of Congress about the double tap and all that. I don't think people really care. And people can say that's cold or something. If someone's bringing drugs on a boat into America, we have had, I think, 50 ,000 fentanyl deaths last year alone. We've seen what it's done to our cities. I just don't think people care. I don't care that much about narco terrorists that are flooding our streets with drugs. Do you see it as a winning issue to defend the quote-unquote rights of people who are bringing drugs into our country?

12:49There are two different issues with Venezuela. One is the fact that we're increasing our Marines in the region. We're in Puerto Rico and other places. We're sending more destroyers and have a Navy buildup. We're sending bombers and our fighter planes. and we're basically putting pressure to try to get a regime change with Madero. My view is that 80%, 70 % of the American people are sick and tired of regime change wars, don't want us spending our resources in that way. They dislike Madero. They hate his policies. They think he's a dictator. They don't think it's our business. They rather we spend money here at home.

13:30In terms of... That's separate. I can get on board a lot of that, actually, although I think it's mostly pressure. I don't think we're flipping the regime. But but that's different than bringing drugs into our country. So a lot of the focus, I think that the two have been conflated in in terms of in my view of how people are talking about it, because there's fundamental concern is stop giving money to Argentina and currency swaps. Stop focusing on Madero. Start focusing on Western Pennsylvania. Start focusing on Warren, Ohio. That to me is the essence of America first. Right. That's, I think, where a lot of the criticism comes from.

14:02Sure, but wouldn't you say that blowing up boats that are bringing drugs into those places? I mean, you grew up in Pennsylvania. I mean, they have a huge, huge, Philadelphia has a huge problem with fentanyl and drugs. But as you know, because I know you're very thoughtful about these things, a lot of that's coming from China into Mexico and across into the United States. Venezuela is the cocaine trade. It's the narcotics trade. It's not fentanyl. And, you know, to the extent we're negotiating with China, we should get them to schedule the precursors to fentanyl as narcotics. And, you know, I've been critical of the president's deal.

14:38But if he can achieve that in getting those precursors scheduled, that would be significant progress on the boat strikes. Though, look, we are not Russia. We are not Xi Jinping. We are Americans. We have a higher standard. And when there's a boat and there are two people who are surrendering, saying, look, we're done, we don't want to fight, Americans don't blow them up. Do other countries blow them up? Yes. So have you seen the classified video that has not come out yet, that that seems to be what people are saying? I don't know. I haven't seen the classified video. I'm actually going to see it this week.

15:13You know, I think Hex said actually today is coming with Ruby out of the Congress, and I'm on the Armed Services Committee. But I just think Americans, we believe we're a nation of faith. We're a nation founded on ideals of, I mean, I'm of Hindu faith, but we're founded on ideals of Christianity, of Judaism, of the Bible. Most people believe in the human dignity of every person. We don't like killing people without process, and certainly if they're unarmed, right? And I think we as a country hold ourselves to a higher standard. And Americans are a, in my view, we're a very decent, caring people.

15:54And like, we don't like it to just be blowing people up if we don't have to. Right. I see. I think all of that is true, except you can blow up drug traffickers. And it's, I just don't think most people care. They're killing our young people and they're destroying our cities. And so to me, this is, I understand the, that's why I asked you in a philosophical sense. I understand the position, but I think in real politic, to me, this one is just a win for Trump. Again, neither one of us have seen the video. And I suppose if it comes off that this guy's waving a white flag and everything else, it might change the optics a little bit.

16:24But even that, I don't I don't think so. We'll see. I mean, I think that the it's the it's that second strike of two people saying, look, we we want to surrender. That gives Americans a sense of of unease and other Republicans in the Armed Services Committee who have had unease. And, you know, that to me has been really refreshing because it makes me think, you know, we really take our responsibilities seriously as a as a nation. You know, it's like G.I. Joe's. We think of ourselves as the good guys. We don't want to be seen as doing bad stuff in the world. I wish I had a great G.I. Joe reference for that.

16:59That would be something. Well, what I offer you a little advice for the Democrats on, which is then go ahead and do more to clean up the cities so people see less fentanyl fold, see less drug mayhem. I mean, Philadelphia is a disaster right now. Many of these cities are. If they did more on that and there was less of the obvious video that comes out every day, then people might be more sympathetic to the argument of, oh, we shouldn't kill all the drug dealers who are coming in. I think we can probably agree on that. If you're going to say that we have an issue of an open drug culture in some of our cities and the Democrats need to do more to take that on, I say yes.

17:37And look at Dan Lurie, for example, in San Francisco. I don't know if you followed his career. He came in. He's got 70 percent approval ratings. He's the first mayor in the last 10, 15 years who said, you know what? We can't just have an open drug culture near the Giants Stadium. I'm going to crack down on it. We can't just have people who are unhoused having a drug culture. So, yeah, we need reform mayors. And Dan Lurie is a great example. Wait, was that your way of saying that Gavin Newsom has been an abject disaster? Come on, come on, come on. That's kind of what you were saying. Look, I think Dan Lurie has been far more effective as a mayor than Emma Gavin was there years ago.

18:15Could it have possibly been worse under Gavin for the drugs and the homelessness? He was there so many years ago. But look, it all started. But there have been governance issues in California. We don't build enough housing. We did not do enough on the issue of homelessness. We have not done enough on the issue of basic public safety and drug culture. We've got high unemployment. That's one of the highest unemployment of the country. We've got to do more on jobs. We've got to do more on lowering costs. I mean, I know they always say, well, California has got the biggest economy. We've got the most manufacturing.

18:47We've got the most patents. Yeah, but what about the working class? We've got to make sure that we don't have the highest cost of living and we've got to reduce that cost of living. So I'm all for reform in Sacramento. I think that was your way of sticking it to Gavin Newsom. So I'm going to shake your hand and thank you for coming in. Thank you. Appreciate it. If you're craving more honest and thoughtful conversations about politics, check out our politics playlist right here. And if you don't want to miss any future videos, make sure to subscribe and hit that notification bell.