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You can't simply secure your way out of the challenges that we face right now. It's not simply security. We do need security, we need to make sure that we're providing that to members, to staff, into the general public. But there's something deeper going on in our society as well that we have to address.
This is Balance of Power on Bloomberg TV and Radio. I'm Joe Matthew part of my conversation there with Republican Congressman Brian Style of Wisconsin on yesterday's Balance of Power discussing what's being done to ensure lawmaker safety on Capitol Hill. He's chair of the House Administration Committee, so this falls in his portfolio of the panel that oversees funding for
member security. And of course it comes after reports of political activists and lawmakers from both parties canceling public events after Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on a college campus in Utah on Wednesday. Joining us Now with more on this and some of the other stories we're following. Democratic Congresswoman Debut Osserman Chelsea Florida. It's always great to have you, a congresswoman. Welcome back to Bloomberg TV and Radio.
I'd like to start with that matter of security. I'd love your greater thoughts on the political violence that this country is I fear growing used to. The fact of the matter is, most lawmakers I have talked to this week have been very modest about their own security. When I've asked them if they feel safe, if they think they should have a security detail. No one has demanded that, but reports suggest that there is an outcry on Capitol
Hill for more to be done. And I wonder what you think when you walk out the door in the morning, if you think you should have a security detail.
Well, Joe, and it's good to be back with you. And I'm glad to have the opportunity to talk about this because I even my own opinion has shifted over the last number of years. My answer, my first answer to this question is always that you know, I serve in the most representative body in the entire world, the one that is the closest to the people, and access to their representatives is something that we absolutely have to maintain.
And you know, when security is around you tightly, people get intimidated and they feel less comfortable approaching their own representative at the same time, though, I mean I had a pipe bomb delivered to my office along with fifteen other politicians around the country, where my return address was the UH and my name was on the return address of every package. The bomb had to be detonated in the stairwell of my district office building. There are Paul Pelosi,
Nancy Pelosi's husband attacked with a hammer. I've gotten countless death threats. I have on and off police outside my house. And then it's it's to the point where making sure that my constituents are protected when I am somewhere, especially if there's been public notice and myself, protecting myself and my family is essential. So an increased security presence needs
to occur. How we deal with that is something that we need to discuss to maintain that balance between accessibility and security.
Well, it's chilling hearing you describe all of that. That pipe bomb was not a fake, I think is part of your point. How does it make you feel when the president says that this is the fault of the radical left.
It is incomprehensible to me. We have a president who
is not able to meet this moment. I mean every major elected official that I know democratic elected official that I know, including myself, put out a statement of sorrow for me, initially wishing mister Kirk hopefully a quick recovery and then expressing sorrow about his killing, and also that we need to make sure that political violence is never, never the answer, and whether we disagree vehemently or not, we all have to make sure we tamp things down
and the president is rapte doing things up. George W. Bush after nine to eleven when the World Trade Center was attacked, the Pentagon, I mean the plane crash in Pennsylvania, he met the moment. He brought us together. He tamped down Islamophobia and anti Semitism. And President Obama after the Mother Emmanuel killings, did the same and brought this to the country together. Blaming one side or the other is not going to enable us to be able to cool
things down and make sure that we work together. I do thank Governor Cox, who is really taking the right tone here from Utah, and that's really the example we need to follow.
Of course, noteworthy that Governor Cox, as a Republican who you're complimenting here, who said our adversaries want violence, our adversaries want violence. We have bots from Russia, China all over the world trying to instill disinformation. I would encourage you to ignore those. This is a big part of this And by the way, a noteworthy I remember very well when President George W. Bush visited a mosque. It was on the seventeenth of September two thousand and one.
Is there an equivalent move that this president could make at this time now?
You know, I hope he uses the moment to address the country and set emanate healing words and ask us all to you know, find our better angels and come
together and try to be less vitriolic. People feel very strongly about you know, a lot of issues right now on both sides, and I think you know, to quote or to paraphrase mister Kirk, you know we should put our phones down, tell our kids to put our phones down, stop drowning and social media and outrage, and really try to come together as human beings, human contact, human communication, making sure that we get to know each other better
as people. When I have an opportunity, Joe to talk to another colleague on the other side of the aisle and I'm trying to win them over on an issue they disagree with, me on. It is always so much easier when we're looking at each other in the eye and we're sitting down next to each other. I have always found that people like to do, like to help people that they like and that they think are nice.
And you don't get to know somebody and know whether they're nice or if they have any good qualities unless we really try to speak to them directly. We all need to work on that.
I've only got about a minute left, congress Woman. What's going to happen when everybody comes back? There was already no trust between Democrats and Republicans, which is why we keep talking about a government shutdown. I'm guessing we're not going to have a post nine to eleven kind of unity here. Will Democrats and Republicans work together to fund the guy?
Well, speaking as a senior appropriator, there is certainly the opportunity to do that, and the ball is in Republicans court. I mean, we can work together on a bipartisan funding bill, make sure that we don't terminate the Obamacare tax credits, and bring the cost of healthcare down, make life more affordable. I'm going to go shopping tomorrow for my family's tailgate tailgate supplies, and there's a Trump tailgate tax that we all pay, whether it's ground b for produce or cheese,
and the Trump tailgate tax has to be addressed. We have to make sure that we come together, and we have an opportunity to do that. But if Republicans take this go along strategy and ignore the affordability crisis that Americans are facing, then they will be the ones that shot the government down.
I think we just got a little preview of the Democratic messaging the tailgate tax. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman, Chelsea, Florida, thank you, as always for talking with au Some on Bloomberg and we'll see you when you get back in town.