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Democratic Congressman Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts Congressman, it's great to see it, Welcome back to Bloomberg TV and radio. Spent a lot more time talking about Jeffrey Epstein than any particular policy this hour, and I'm wondering what you're hearing, what's going on here. I thought Republicans wanted to expose these files, and it looks like everybody's going home.
Americans perceived that there's one set of rules for the powerful and one set of rules for the average American. And that's confirmed when they look at Donald Trump protecting Jeffrey Epstein. And it's also confirmed when they see Secretary Kennedy who pledges radical transparency and then refuses to require his top aid CALLI Means, to issue conflict of interest reports, despite the fact that calli Means is running his own business on the side that's benefit from Health and Human
services policy. Same thing with Howard Lutnik, Secretary of Congress, who's shilling his own cryptocurrencies in the Middle East while administration policy benefits his tether empire. So Americans are tired of the corruption and grift they're seeing in Washington, DC, and they want a forceful response from Democrats to address the corruption in corporate capture.
Well, Congressman, we mentioned earlier on the program that the House Oversight Committee is looking to get a subpoena to get some testimony from Galaine Maxwell. I'm wondering if you're in support of that, and what sort of additional information that you're looking for that you would want to hear from her potential testimony.
I'm in support of a transparent, impartial investigation, including the resolution from Representative Kana to require the disclosure of the investigation files. And then I'm also in favor of Congress addressing this issue and then moving on to issues that affect cost of living financial freedom for Americans. We have legislation bipartisan that lowers the cost of prescription drugs for Americans that should have passed the House in December, but Elon Musk killed it. We should pass it right now
before we go on recess. We've got bipartisan legislation that I have helped to draft that would.
Take on.
Fentanyl importing from China, bipartisan. We should pass that now before we go on recess. And these are issues that I think affect Americans in their daily lives and that we need to address right now.
Well, we've been talking with a lot of upset Democrats. Congressman since the Recisions Package passed. Ralph Norman just told us there's another Recisions package coming. The White House has promised this as well, following the passage of the President's Big Beautiful Bill that of course Democrats did not support. Are you prepared to part ways with Republicans and allow the government to shut down or will you in fact
sit down at the table and consider a deal. A deal when a budget is written with a Republican majority in the House.
Well, let's look at the impact of the last Recisions package. Elon Musk came in with those pledged a trillion dollars in savings. He was going to mail checks to the American people. They were going to make government more efficient. What they've done, they've cost American taxpayers more than one hundred billion dollars. And then the Recisions Package had nine billion dollars in savings that gutted public broadcasting and polio vaccines. So, thanks to Doze, we have taken on polio vaccines.
Great.
So this next recisions package, I'm sure is going to be as incompetent and cruel. And Democrats stand by a bipartisan appropriations process. But if the Republican's are going to go through the back door and negate those deals through partisan recisions packages, then it's very hard to negotiate in good faith.
And that's exactly what they're pledging to do.
But Congressman, so just for clarity, do you think that Democrats should be risking a shutdown here in order to get through a negotiating leverage at this point? Is this inevitable?
Of course, I want to fund the government, and I want to fund the government through a bipartisan appropriations process that gives Congress more power over the executive and allow us to set funding levels that are appropriate to the
needs of the American people. The challenge that Democrats have right now, just to be very clear, is we can work in a bipartisan way to pass a funding deal, but then Republicans, in a partisan way can do a recisions package that negates the funding that had hitherto been agreed. So you can see the catch twenty two the Democrats are in. It's like, okay, we shake hands on a Tuesday and estab us in the back on a Wednesday.
We're getting a little tired of that game.
Well, it's been an interesting game listening to the conversations around Jeffrey Epstein. Not that I'm going back to that Congressman, but the President has been talking about a lot of things, likely in an effort we keep hearing to change the subject. And today he went back to the Russia investigation and involving interference of the twenty sixteen and twenty twenty elections, calling out former President Obama. He called him a trader.
He also talked about James Comby, Hillary Clinton, and some other members of the former administration. Speaker Johnson says he has no concern when it comes to compelling testimony from President Obama regarding what the President of the United States now calls the Russia hoax allegations. What's your response to that kind of language and the potential for a subpoena for former President Obama?
Grossly inappropriate, of course, and in pattern with President Trump's knee jerk reflex to every issue, which is to blame somebody else. It's always somebody else's fault with Donald Trump, right, It's just this one long litany of grievances.
It's pathetic when it comes to Russia.
What I hope Donald Trump would do is stop looking at twenty sixteen and start looking at twenty twenty five, when Russia is bombing Ukraine and is trying to open up a second front against NATO in the Western Balkans. He needs to get strong against Vladimir PuO, and that means seizing the three hundred billion euros and frozen assets held in Brussels and appropriating that towards Ukrainian defense. That
means authorizing long range strikes against Russian oil refineries. That means tightening sanctions and price caps against Russian oil exports, which funds their war machine. It's time to demonstrate some strength as opposed to supplication of Vladimir Putin. Because frankly, the Kremlin right now is looking at the US national security team and that looks like a junior varsity squad.
Well, let's actually build on that. Because President Trump has threatened that there could be a so called secondary sanction on those countries that buy or import Russian oil, we're looking at how that could potentially impact China and India, for example. Is that the sort of escalation that you would be.
In support of.
It's hard to take the president seriously. So I mean, the short answer is yes, I am glad that the President the United States recognizes that NATO is our ally and Russia is our enemy. It is promising that he is talking about secondary sanctions and getting tough their oil exports. But the problem is when he changes his mind every twenty four hours based on what he sees on Fox and Friends or whatever Vladimir Putin texts him, he doesn't
actually signal strength. The Kremlin needs to understand that they are facing an enemy in Ukraine that is going to be armed for the long haul, and it's going to have the support of NATO to create a military industrial complex in Eastern Europe.
And right now they don't see that with Donald Trump.
They see somebody who vacillates and supplicates himself.
When you head home to Newtonville on your August recess, Congressman, will you be able to look voters in the eyes tell them that Democrats can help avoid a government shutdown.
Yes, Democrats have been negotiating on appropriations in good faith over the last two administrations. In fact, and we're the ones who want to see responsible funding levels for programs and services and American Americans rely upon. Republicans are the ones who just cut Medicaid for ten million Americans. That's going to raise health insurance premiums on tens of millions of more Americans who get their insurance through their employers.
So when it comes to supporting the programs that Americans rely on for stable government, Democrats are the ones they should count on.
All right. Democratic Congressman Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts, we thank you so much for joining Bloomberg