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We go now to a Congressman from Florida. Democrat, Debbie Wasserman Schultz is here with us on set in Chicago.
Great to see you, Great to see you both.
Congresswoman, if we could just begin knowing that you just had a decisive victory in your primary in Florida last night as well, what are you seeing on the ground in Florida. Do you think it would be wise for the Harris campaign to be investing resources in the state, Knowing the many many media markets it has, It's a very expensive state to be competitive in. But if she made the decision to, could she actually be competitive.
I'm telling everybody, as our most political folks in Florida, don't sleep on our state. We have some metrics that are emerging. Remember, for most election cycles in this century, we have been a purple state. We've been hyper competitive. Barack Obama one Florida both times that he ran. And I'll give you an example from just yesterday's primary. The
enthusiasm among Democratic voters is off the charts. I mean, just to give you an idea, I won my primary, but it's not the win, it's the difference in the voter turnout between Democrats and Republicans. Thirty four thousand people voted in I got thirty four thousand votes. The primary winner on the Republican side got thirteen thousand votes. So just in terms of enthusiasm, you can see the difference.
But polling last week, both national polls that came out that polled Florida had the race within three and five. And then if you look at the volunteer organization on the ground, twenty two thousand people signed up to volunteer to elect Kamala Harris President of United States. So with the resources and also the Republicans have continued to distort their advantage. They say they have a million more registered
voters in Florida. They don't. What they did was that they suppressed the vote who haven't voted in two elections and now show them as inactive even though they're still registered. So there aren't a million more Republicans registered to vote. We have huge enthusiasm. We beat almost every mom's for a liberty candidate that Ron DeSantis endorsed for school board races. Last night, about almost two dozen that he endorsed, and he only won six of them. So the momentum is
in our direction. No one should sleep on Florida.
Well interesting and looking more broadly Florida and across the country and not just the swing states. Congressmen, our listeners and viewers should be reminded that you were chair of the DNC during Barack Obama's second convention. Yes, as president of the United States, will you seek to duplicate his map?
Well, what we're seeking to do is make sure that we can capitalize on the enthusiasm and the contrast between the momentum that we have under a Kamala Harris and Tim Walls because hope and optimism like we had during the Obama years and joy is what is pushing people forward because they want a president who was going to fight for them to reduce prescription drug prices.
But you were talking about more states than you were when Joe Biden was at the top of the ticket.
There is no question right now that we have different math in multiple different directions than we had just five, five or six weeks ago. And so what we can't do is just you know, move forward without pivoting and making the kind of adjustments that we need to and being nimble and that's what our campaign operations are doing right now, and they're doing some recalculations so they can be ready for any opportunity.
Well, and I wonder how those recalculations are factoring into the likelihood of not just getting the majority in the House, but how large you think your majority could potentially be with Harris at the top of the ticket. You obviously remember of House leadership. Has the goalposts moved? Initially it was like, you just got to get those four seats, but what's the target now?
Well, we have the net four seats and we have a very clear advantage in the fundraise. We have consistently outraised the NRCC, the Republican Campaign Finance Operation, every single quarter of this election cycle. But it's not just that our incumbent frontline marginal members. They've outraised their opposition, our red to blue candidates. They have a recruitment problem. They've
got right wing extremists all over the map. So the contrast is clear all the way down the ticket, from the White House pair of candidates down to legislative races, and voters are going to come out to the polls elect our candidates because they want someone who's thinking about moving forward, not a maga extremist Republican who's buried in
the past, who's morose and brooding and unhappy. We've got to make sure that we have a positive, forward thinking government so that we can ensure that this booming economy, fifteen million plus jobs, making sure that we continue to bring prescription drug crisis down, that we make sure that we have a plan like Kamala Harris does, to make home ownership affordable, and child tax credit reinstated, so many
things that are important on the kitchen table. Not a president like Donald Trump was, who cared only about making sure that the wealthy and the profit and the profitable businesses are able to do even better.
I want to ask you about an issue I know is very important to you and a lot of progressive Democrats, and that's our policy in Israel right now. Is the reason why we've been talking about protesters that in some cases have not materialized here in Chicago. Congresswoman, there are reports today that US and Israeli officials think that this proposal for a bridge ceasefire deal is on the verge of collapsing. We heard from Secretary of State Anthony Blincoln
in Doha here's what he said. Our message is simple, it's clear, and it's urgent. We need to get the ceasefire and hostage agreement over the finish line, and we need to do it now. Time is of the essence. How important will it be for a ceasefire to be struck to find unity among progressives in the Democratic Party.
What's important is that Hamas released the hostages. What's important is that Israel not be expected like any other nation, shouldn't be expected to live with a terrorist threat sworn on their destruction and the killing of all Jews on
their doorstep. What's important is making sure that the terror, the terror threat that Palestinians and Gaza live with, is ended so that they don't that they can free Gaza from Hamas and that when we reach a ceasefire deal that releases those hostages, that ensures that we can have governance in Gaza that is peaceful and non threatening. That
is absolutely essential. The time that's running out is that we have one hundred and nine hostages still there, at least eight that are American that need to be freed. I mean, we have to make sure and thanks to the Biden Harris administration for staying at the table pushing the negotiations forward. But Hamas needs to take this deal, that is the bottom line.
Well, and we'll wait to see if they do so and on what timeframe, knowing that they also could be considering that it will be a different government come January if they drag this out long enough. You just mentioned what the Biden Harris administration has done. Do you expect that there would be a serious departure from this administration's policy if it were instead of Harris Wall's administration. How does she not go from the incombent.
Press, She doesn't differ. She's made very clear that she is right alongside President Biden. She's been a part of those discussions, the negotiations. Kamala Harris supports making sure that we have a ceasefire deal that brings the hostages home, that ends the terrorist threat on Israel' storestep, that ensures that we can get humanitarian assistance and relief to the Palestinians who are victimized by Hamas themselves, and also continuing the strong usaid to Israel. She said very clearly she's
not for an arms embargo. We have the strong plank in the Democratic Party platform strongest pro Israel plank of any party in decades, and the Republicans come nowhere near the commitments and the specificity in the Democratic Party platform that we have. And that's because the Democratic Party is the one that has solidly and consistently stood with Israel, not just in words, but in actions.
What happens to Gaza donald Trump is elected.
You know, when it comes to how foreign policy is dealt with in general, I'm very fearful about what happens because Donald Trump doesn't actually care about how to make sure that Gaza is governed in the aftermath, and how you end the terrorist threat and ensure that the security apparatus that needs to be in place for Israel is put in place in a way that allows a peaceful transition and the negotiation over an Arab forward governing coalition.
He re acts only emotionally and not with thought or commitment. And I'm very fearful because of Project twenty twenty five, of who he's going to put in place in these important state department positions to ensure that we have real professionals who are able to do things like Joe Biden has getting these negotiations together and making sure that we have a diplomatic apparatus that has the experience and the commitment they need.
Thanks for coming to see us.
Thank you so much.
We left the rest of this convention there. Thanks Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Chelsea of Florida, former chair of the DNC. We're live in Chicago on ballance of Pout Bloomberg TV and Radio.