Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics, where we discussed the top political headlines with some of today's best minds. And the US stock market has lost five trillion dollars of value since Donald Trump was elected, but I was told he was going to be great for the economy. We have such a great show for you today. We will talk to the Mary Trump Shows. Mary Trump, We'll talk about that democratic lack of leadership. Then we'll talk to Congressman Robert Garcia about the real
world cost of Donald Trump's tariffs. Plus we'll have a bonus clip from our YouTube where we interviewed New York Governor Kathy Hokeel about how she can protect us from Trump.
But first the news.
Somally this government shutdown. I have to say, I can't remember time the Democratic base has been more pissed off, can you?
No?
I mean, look, I was walking in Midtown and I ran into a protest of seventy You can see it on my Instagram if you want my stories. A protest of seventy six people in front of Shumer's office, streaming with the signs. And by the way, the day before I was walking somewhere because the weather is beautiful. There was a huge protest in Trump Tower, and you know, here's what's happening. People are protesting because they are furious, and they are furious because this is not how the
federal government is supposed to work at all. And these are not AstroTurf protests, right, These are people who are so furious because they feel that their government is not representing them. And when you open the door to this and again, we keep seeing this, right and again, the Republicans, Democrats elected not honoring the will of their voters. And sooner or later you hit a moment like in the sixties.
And we saw this in Trump one point zero, right, we saw these protests, these kinds of outward displays where politics became so all encompassing that people could do nothing but go to the streets.
And I think we're going to see more of this.
And I really wonder, like in Trump one point zero, it felt like he was a little bit more concerned with his popularity and with the markets and with the outside issues. This time, it feels like he's so sequestered from public sentiment that I wonder how much he notices. Again, at least the democratic politicians are noticing. I don't think they're doing what they need to be doing yet, but it is interesting. Look, this is the only way people can do it. And we saw in Israel that people
were in the streets protesting Nanyahu all the time. We've seen France. These people love to protest. They protested us last week with no shirts.
On, those silly freds.
Look, they know what they're doing.
We're about to witness a lot of protests, and honestly, the Trumpers don't like it because they only know at the Second Amendment and not the first. But you are protected by the United States Constitution for your right to protest.
We do see a lot of people who are coming to us who are very puzzled why Schumer would cave, why Jillibrand was so adamant about caving, especially since this poll that we see here said that the Democrats are not really who would have been blamed.
What do you see in there?
AOC who I have quite a lot of respect for and think is very smart and is also more importantly, quite good at connecting with voters in a way that a lot of Democrats are not. Right, you and I spend a lot of time talking about why democratic politicians have so much trouble connecting with voters, and AOC is like Bernie Good at connecting with voters.
Right, So the question.
Is, why are these senators just completely unable to sort of respect the will of the base.
And here's what I would say.
And I don't want to defend them, because honestly, that doesn't do anything for anyone. But I think that and this has been Democrats problem, Democrats problem this entire time, which is they're thinking about downgrading the credit, right, they are thinking about what a government shutdown would look like. Look, government shutdowns are a game of chicken, right, So whoever is the craziest will ultimately win a government shutdown.
Right.
It's like when you're driving in New York and you pull out in front of someone because you're slightly less worried about getting hit by a car than they are.
You know what I mean?
Mike?
Can I quote a classic book of negotiation, The Art of the Deal?
You can at your own risk, he who.
Has the least to lose wins the negotiation.
Yeah, And so that's where we are here, right. Republicans want to destroy the federal government. That's the game here, right, And the federal government. You know, you and I did this project twenty twenty five YouTube series which you can see but should be on our YouTube channel too.
It is on our channel page as of today.
Yes, so you can look back on this and see that we were psychics or we just read the book they published which said they were going to do all this stuff. So they want a government shutdown forever, right, that's all they want. And so ultimately these Democratic senators were thinking that they would give Trump more power by shutting down the government. Now I think it was a mistake, and I think that politically it's a mistake to just completely cave to Donald Trump.
I sort of.
Don't understand why Schumer couldn't do more with John Thune. Like Thune, again, no one here is not an insane, maga Republican, but Thune is a lot less crazy than a lot of other Republicans.
He's no Tommy Tuberville.
Right, He's no Tommy Tuberville. Oh my god, that is the worst thing I've ever heard. He has no Tommy Tuberville.
Sir, you are no Tommy.
It is right, is right, And Tommy Tuberville looks like Lincoln. Tommy Tuberville the dumbest member of the Senate from the great state of Alabama to number fifty in education and heal. I don't think it's quite fifty, but it's up there anyway. So the point is an impossible situation, probably played wrong by Democrats yet again. Thank you for playing plead an utter meltdown on all text change, said a member who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer sensitive details
of members internal conversation. A senior House Democrats said people are furious and that some rank and file members have floated the idea of angrily marching onto the Cenate flor and protest. Others are openly talking about supporting primary challenges to Senators who vote for the GOP spending bill.
Good stuff, Sami. One of the things that happens if you're unfortunately following Elon Musk is you'll see him retweet the stupidest thought you've seen in a long time. But this one was pretty stupid and scary, especially after a week where two times and two weeks Joe Rogan has had people on saying very crazy conspiracy theories about the Jews running the world. I say this with scare quotes here and Elon Musk is now retweeting this.
He retweeted a tweet from the Alice Smith she seems great. Yeah, she seems really good from a guy called roth Moose, who said Stalin Mao and Hitler didn't murder millions of people, their public sector workers did. So the idea is that Hitler did not. I can't even know. I'm moving. I'm sorry, I just want to move to Italy. Yeah, I don't know. I'm blaming public sector workers for the Holocaust is a hell of a.
Take, But here we are.
Musk was condemned by Jewish leaders later, but later condemned his critics on X, saying, frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The everyone is Hitler attack is so tired. Also, I mean, I'm glad you still thinks Hitler is bad.
That's good. That's something.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's about all we can get in a bargain for I seem to have missed this chapter though, where it was the Hitler's willing executioners, where it was the public sector workers who are really at fault, not him.
Yeah.
Well, speaking of all the good things they're going, well, Trump has lost it on his allies at the Wall Street Journal op ed page after trashing his economic policies.
I think it's worth remembering that the Wall Street Journal aped is like the brainworms aped right. This is like they are one step below the New York Post op ed. They are the place where they are just everything they everything they think and believe, is completely insane. It is like just not anywhere you'd want to be. Okay, But they are not thrilled MacDonald Trump crashing the United States
economy for no reason. So they have been writing about how incredibly stupid these tariffs are because they are, and Trump is not happy, and so he says the globalis. Wall Street Journal has no idea what they are doing or saying. They are owned by the polluted thinking of the European Union.
Ah.
Yes, the European Union, the real enemy, which was founded for the primary purpose of screwing the United States of America. Trump raged in a truth social post. Yes, they exist to screw over the United States of America.
That's why the EU.
Exists for pretty based take yeah.
Pretty based. Some might even say just stupid there. Wall Street Journal thinking is antiquated, weak and very bad for the USA. But have no fear we will win on everything. Egg prices are down, oil is down, interest rates are down. Stocks are also down. Tariff's related. That was my I added that myself, tariff related money is pouring.
Into the United States. The only thing you have to.
Fear is fear itself and a madman who thinks he's a king. Mary Trump is the host of The Mary Trump Show. Welcome back to Fast Politics, Mary Trump.
Well, Dug Fast.
It is always good to be with you on.
The break of the apocalypse.
You know, it's funny.
It's like, I love you so much, and one of the many reasons why I love you is because you're really smart, but you're also just incredibly thoughtful, and you've been through it.
You were fartue cons I think at this point the same we've all been through it and we continue to be going through it. It is a little bit difficult in these times when we are getting betrayed by the only people we thought actually cared.
Yeah, Like the thing that I'm struck by when I think of like I wrote this book that's coming out in June about how the year that my husband got cancer and my mother got diagnosed to mension, my stepmother died and my father in law died and it was like,
you know, it was like two years ago. I thought, this is such a weird book to publish because you know, we didn't know what was going to happen, right, because you publish a book a couple of years before, So you know, I think people can get help from the situation of like having this experience. And but what I realize now is like, what I got from this experience, and I want to talk to you about it because I feel like you work in this space, right in
the mental health space. So but what I got from this experience was this incredible focus that like, when you are in an emergency, you have very few choices and so you must just do the thing that is the only thing.
Yeah, which is why books like yours are relevant across yes, paradigms and situations, because it is it is an essential experience, regardless of what the experiences are.
And now everyone is having it.
Yeah, well we've been having it for a long time. But like what taglines is, you can recover from trauma to the extent you can if you are constantly in the process of being retraumatized. Yes, correct, by the same token, how do you overcome the emergency, the thing that requires all of your focus when you have to move on to the next one, and then the next one and then the next one, which just in addition to being
exhausting and depleting and innovating, also creates these unprocessed traumas. Yeah, many of us have been dealing with this individually and collectively since November twenty sixteen. And all of us, whether we acknowledge it or not, whether we admit it or not, whether we think we feel it or not, have been dealing with it since March twenty twenty.
Oh.
Yeah, And I want to keep going with this thinking because it is true.
And I'm wondering if we could talk about this.
You know, I spend a lot of time thinking about a sort of how we got here, And what I think a lot about is like the trauma that was COVID, our collective inability to reconcile this sort of COVID experience.
Do you want to talk about that?
Yeah?
Sure.
To me, the central travity of COVID is that it happened, all right, But beyond that, in terms of the context of the response to it, which is literally the only thing we had control over or that some people had control over. Is that crises like that present us potentially with an opportunity to be united and to draw strength
from each other. And because the worst person who has literally ever roamed the planet was in charge, decided that, and there are complex reasons why, which I don't need to get into, but decided that taking the stand he took. Of course, I'm talking about Donald that instead of uniting us, which is something he's incapable of. He could have been a hero, he's incapable of that, he decided to use
it as a divisive tool to strengthen himself. It was a political calculation which cost hundreds of thousands of lives needlessly. And instead of being united at this time when we were isolated and terrified and suspicious you never know who could get you sick, who could kill your kids, he made it worse. It was such a betrayal and it weakened us, and it traumatized us further because he brought on board tens of millions of people who were also willing to do that to us. It became purposeful and
I'm never going to get over that. Ever, So people who weren't willing to wear a mask to keep our kids from getting this deadly disease. People who weren't willing to get vaccinated for the you know, for selfish and quite frankly self defeating and self destructive reasons, because they didn't care about other people. And he activated that in a way obviously it was latent, but he wouldn't have been able to activate it. But he activated it in a way that has cost us so much as human beings.
It's empathetic, caring, trusting human beings, and he's degraded all of us, and he's diminished us in ways we cannot yet fathom. And now, you know, I think that kind of I hate. I'm so tired of this ory gets baked in. Everything horrible about him is baked in, which means we just have to accept it, right, but that is all baked in now, so we know, no, there's no arguing with Republicans. It's a waste of energy. They're fascist. Now, they have their agenda, they're sticking to it, they have
their projects. So we're left Democrats and now the Democrats are the ones betraying us. And it's too much to bear.
It feels like one of the cardinal sins that Democrats keep making is that we keep thinking I'm not gonna say, mate, because I actually don't think this, but that there's a sort of ethos that the punding class and the leadership of the Democrats believe that there will be normal Republicans and that one day Republicans wake up from this fever dream and be like, oh man, this this was Yeah, that's not who we are, and in fact, that is a complete misreading of the situation.
You're absolutely right now, I have to be honest with you. At this point, it is unfathomable to me, unfathomable, unfathomable. Now, we all live in our little bubbles. There's literally nobody in my life who disagrees with me in any real problematic ways about politics or policy. No, nobody. So that's my bubble. But you know, I'm relatively well informed, so I understand what's going on outside my bubble. I don't think there is any bubble as impermeable as the bubble
the Senate Democrats live in. That's the only explanation I can think of. Have they not witnessed what their colleagues have done to them personally, to them as a party to this country for years and years now. I don't know what they're after the fact that they keep going after the imaginary middle at the expense of their base it seemed to me and yet another betrayal. And I don't understand what the calculus is because honestly, what are
they getting out of this? It is either that again they are so blinded by their insolarity, they are so incapable of looking at the real world and the real world consequences that they are helping usher in, or there's something else going on.
They're afraid.
Obviously they're cowards, But what are they afraid of exactly? And to me, that is a slap in the face to all of us who have been standing strong and withstanding and fighting and continuing to believe something that apparently democratic senators don't believe it anymore.
Right, I wonder how much belief has to do with any of this, believe it or not, you know what I mean? Like, I wonder if some of this is just there's a lack of imagination, right like. And I don't mean that in a positive way. I mean that in a negative way, right Like. I can't remember what historians said that the Holocaust was a lack of imagination. You know, they didn't see it coming because they couldn't
conceive of an evil so pure. And this is obviously not the same as the hogous, but it is this idea that this kind of level of radicalization they could not see coming, like, they couldn't wrap their heads around it, and so they just keep sort of this posture of denial.
Yeah, of course, yes, nobody could imagine that somebody would fly a plane. It's a real trade center.
Right, Actually that was the comment. I think, yes. Anyways, the contary, that's right.
That was it traps either way. The problem is it's not a imagining anymore. We're living. Yet we were having these conversations, I mean, some people were having these conversations in twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen. I was, but I was having them by myself in my living room. A lot of us were having these conversations publicly in twenty twenty. In September October twenty twenty, before the election, I was saying democracy is on an ive s edge.
If Donald Trump gets back into office, the American experiment is over. You were saying that. Many other people were saying that, So you cannot tell me that four years later, after the big Lie, after the insurrection, which is ten times worse and successful, after what has been done to immigrants, and on and on and on, you cannot tell me that it requires imagination anymore. It just requires looking at the fucking.
Facts, right right. No, No, that's a good point.
All right, I'm a little heated.
No, well, I think the problem also is that Democrats have had a lot of trouble being able to and legislators more generally. I mean it's funny because it's like I feel, and again, funny is the wrong word. What I mean is tragic, is so crushingly tragic. It is so crushingly tragic that we watched in twenty sixteen Republicans be decimated by trump Ism, and now you know, in the second term of TRUMPSM, we're watching Democrats be decimated
by trump ISSM. Like both parties were completely unable or unwilling. It doesn't really matter what their motivation is to stand up for their constituents.
Yeah, which is quite something, you know. I think you asked earlier, are all Republicans this now? And yes, the answer is yes, absolutely. I believe that the Republican party is a fascist movement now, and to ignore that or to pretend that's not true, or to think that, oh that's due, that's rude.
Sorry, we have.
To look at this straight in the face. What are Democrats that the party of Neville Chamberlain.
It's like this idea about New York City is a great example of this.
Where we both live.
We have horrendous politicians, right, I mean the horrendous.
Right, we have a mayoral curse.
It is like you want to die, how bad the politicians in this city are.
Where our mayor is terrible.
The guy who is going to run to replace our mayor is terrible.
And he'll be better, but he's still terrible.
Right, everyone is terrible.
We just are trying to replace the guy who is in like basically a blackmail situation with our fascist president.
Right, I mean that's really what we're looking at here.
So why don't good people run for office? Well, we're confetent people. I mean that's really where we've come to, Right, It's like there are some competent people in office, but most almost all clearly like they were all people who couldn't get better jobs.
I Mean, it just strikes me that we are not in a great moment. Where is the fucking FDR.
We are not bringing our best, We are not.
We have RFK Junior. We don't have JFK. Yeah exactly.
Oh my goodness, Yeah, that is a question. New York is the greatest city on the planet. We can't get it right.
I don't know.
It's a little disturbing. I think part of it is because what it means to be it's politician has been degraded. Like I never understood the whole contempt for politicians, because it's like having contempt.
For public servants.
Any any person who has expertise in their field, Like technically, I've always thought a politician is somebody who is expert in government.
Right, But clearly not, No, they're not.
And so now politicians are the people who can do whatever they can to get into power and then then apparently the only thing they care about is keeping it. And we're seeing that play out with Democrats as well, because they are Democrats like John Assof and Mark Warner who are like, well, what is the thing I need to do in order to get me reelected? That's your priority here. I think part of it is just the systemic Why is Alexandria Casio Cortez not the head of her committee instead.
Jerry Les Connolly Jerry conta.
I'm true.
He's a lovely man, but he's seventy three. He has no social media presence, he has a doesn't understand optics, he doesn't understand how to communicate.
And he has throw cancer and is being treated for throw cancer.
He is seventy four, So we were close. We were close. He's seventy four.
He has throw cancer, which again God bless him, But if I had throw cancer, I would want to have time to recover. He has seven thousand followers on Instagram versus.
AOC's millions and millions.
So I actually was talking to a member and I said, you guys, you have a chance to elevate AOC who has all of these people who follow her every word, or you can elevate a guy nobody has heard of, who's in his seventies and who you know has to have cancer treatment. And I say, this is someone who you know married to someone who just went through cancer treatment. It's a bitch, right And he didn't even have such
bad treatment and it was still a bitch. And he said, well, but you don't understand I have a relationship with Jerry.
Oh okay, Lake.
We just went through a hall election where everyone said democracy was on the ballot. So if democracy is on the ballot, then I don't care who the.
Fuck your friends was.
I don't either, And in fact, if that's your calculus, then fuck you too.
Yeah, And I mean that is a real I think that's a real question, right.
Yeah, And that's why we need to get very very serious about primarying these people. Schumer needs to be primaried Jillibred. I'm so ashamed of my state right now because we now know that in the closed door Democratic Caucus meeting yesterday, Jillibred was leading the charge to cave and obviously Schumer as leader owns all of it. And that's New York. Thanks guys. They both need to be primary I hope Ocasio Cortez primary Schumer. I hope we find somebody to
primary Jillibrand. I don't know when she's up for reelection.
Just got reelected. But yes, I understand what you're saying.
Start now, because it's going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more than that. Start now, whoever you are, and you know, put them on notice, because these people think they can just skate. And this is not about making a bad decision that people will forget about in six years. This is about making a tragic error in judgment that will get us to a point in six years in which this country will likely be
unrecognizable and irredeemable. Right that might be the case in six months, for all we know.
I think that's a real question, Mary, will you please come back?
Of course that will come back. And in fact I want to see I want to see you in person or IRL.
I know we have to see each other irl exactly. Thank you, Mary Trump. Congressman Robert Garcia represents California's forty second district. Welcome back to Fast Politics. Congressman Robert Garcia, be here. So things are going great.
Well, I wish, I mean, I think things are absolutely horrific.
I think we know that it's really really our time, and I think at this moment we just all got to be very clear eed, but we are in a massive shit show and we've got to do everything we can to push back as one as we can.
This is a this is not a great month for the country.
Democrats in the House, everyone except Jared Golden voted against his CR and Jared is in an R plus twenty seven district domain he is sort of the mansion of the House ultimately, and you know he has to protect his seat for.
Whatever that's worth.
You look at the Senate, you see they have an impossible situation. But the base is absolutely fucking furious. So I mean, tell me what you think and sort of where you are on this.
Yeah, I mean, look, I think that House Democrats obviously did in the absolute right thing, and the base and Anti Party and the people on Atlantic are really going to support what we're doing. At the end of the day. This is not some sort of regular budget fighting. It should be clear what this is. This is a framework to get the government. It's a framework that does nothing to stop what Elon Musk is doing to the agencies.
It's a framework that essentially sets up massive costs to medicate across the country that's actually gonna hurt workings, families still dependent, the care on social security and fret. Frankly, it ties the hands of us than here us in the House of actually trying to fight and push back. So it's incredibly infuriating. What constructural is doing and what
he's allowing to move forward. Quite frankly, it's shameful. I've never been more disappointed in him and some of our colleagues in the Senate, and we have to everything that we can to ring the alarm that this is we are in a five alarm fire moment right now for our democracy in the country.
You have really seen this administration firsthand, and it's craziness.
Talk to us about the letter you got from the DOJ.
This is crazy. And look, I think it's clear what the administration is trying to do and what they're trying to intimidate folks. And if you speak out against doct Trump, you speak out against Elon Labosk, you're going to be punished or beat someone's who try to intimidate. I think in this case, we've got a letter from the U citility. I mean he is has called himself the President's personal autronity,
which we know is not appropriate or or constitutional. He basically sent me in am A Democrats letters saying that we're going to be investigated because of our comments. And I mean in my case it was because I literally made and set a benefit. I said that we should bring open to this bar fight and that it's this is the fight for democracy. I mean, that's a figure of speech and one that I've used often, and so it goes to show you how how crazy and upside
down the world is and it's dangerous. Is now the Justice Department is being weaponized to silence people, and you know I won't be silenced. Others aren't going to be silenced, and folks like they're being attacked and level of AOC or others. I think it's important that folks don't back down. It's also not just about me. It's important that this is people knowing that this is about silencing all people that are actually trying to impose what Donald trumpety one
that's you're doing. This is it's much broader than just about me and people like myself, people like AOC or getting these debouts. You are not going to be silenced.
Are you disappointed that so many people like the billionaire tech all of ourcs just fell into place and did whatever it has fallen to us to be brave when the richest people in the world are giving away their power.
I think that's what's most frustrating at this moment is yes, that are actually getting richer, and working class people, people that are poor, people that are trying to get by are struggling. And why should the richest person on the planet continue to get more and more and more as social security and Medicare and food programs and public schools get less and less. And that just makes absolutely no sense. And of course it's not just a Musk. We know
that a billing you to accumulate more wealth. I mean, Neil Musk has only gotten richer since the election, and so it's really concerning that more people aren't frustrated that the most wealthy continue to get wealthy and working class people struggle. That's not a chartist in issue. Anyone, regardless of party, whether you're a Republican or Democrat or independent, you should be furious there. I think that is something, but I hope that all people can come back behind.
Yeah.
Why do you think there's just been so little pushback even from the Senate? I mean, have they just not been able to figure.
Out how to do this?
I mean why you know, if you think about Mitch McConnell, I don't think he would have any trouble pushing back if Democrats were trying to give free glasses or free dental care. I mean, why do you think it seems like the Senate is so stuck here.
I think it's a hard thing we've got to struggle with internally. But I don't think that we've been prepared for this moment, and I think that we've seen it coming on. Why our leaders in the Senate haven't been more prepared? Again, I think what Senator Schumer is doing now is very disappointing. It's shameful, honestly, that we're chieving the way we are. You know, anybody in your community.
People are furious and we're not matching that anger. And I think that that's a big concern and a lot of us in the House, a lot of us that are out there every day pushing back, finding like hell, been calling all the bullshit out and we need, we need the Senate to match that energy. And I'm not sure if it's just the way the Senate operates. I just they think that the world should move slow and
moving away and the way it's always has been. And you know, we our institutions and we've got to respect them. Over Those days are over. Those days are over if we continue to operate in the way that they're used to. We're not going to recognize the country and we're certainly not going to do anything to stop building areaship like humility, more wealth, and hurting looking people.
Do you think that part of it is like a legislative problem? Do you think that if the Senate were a little bit better at legislating, or do you think it's.
A bravery problem? Like you know, we talk a lot about.
Harry Reid, who was the leader of the Senate before Schumer, and Harry Reid was extremely good at sort of skirting the rules in a way that worked, and Schumer has not been is quite as good at that. I mean, do you think that the Democrats need someone like that or do you think that the circumstances are just so impenetrable.
He's a little on both, But I honestly think we're just in different times, and different times require bolder and stronger and more breaktions, and we're not seeing that right now. We can't play by the same rules and the Harry reddings, and also those days are over. We've got to a mode.
I think about this moment a lot, like what do you think Democrats should be doing? Because the base is obviously furious. A lot of people are really angry Trump is. They certainly are much better organized than last time, but luckily still quite incomfident.
What do you think the smartest move here is.
First, we've got to match with same energy. It's incredibly concerning to think that things are just going to be the way they've always been. And that's what I've been hearing a lot from colleagues right that somehow everything is going to be the same. Oh you know, well, you know we'll win in two years, because as Donald Trump's in office and Democrats win and off youre oh, it's going to be fine. The cycle back. And there's a lot of folks that faith this way. That is fucking crazy.
And we're the federal government's being rated the world's richest man is now essentially the co president of the United States. Thousands of people are being laid off for no reason. Things are not normal. I think that is something that I think is really important, is that people understand this is not how things needs to be. I think that's something that people's got to change.
Yeah, that seems to be the question.
So let's talk about the tariffs part of the poison pill here, was the tariffs right that it had something in it to make it so that Congress was giving up its power on tariffs?
Could you talk to us about that?
Yeah, I mean the tariff's debate is insane. I mean, first in all this continuing resolution debate embedded by the way and the rules in passing this fake budget spending package, is this fucking idea that we shouldn't in Congression have the ability to actually roll back any of these tariffs that the autops putting in place. These terriiffs are crazy. I mean, I'm talking to industry groups, supports, all sorts of folks, and they have so much uncertainty about what
to do next. They have no idea what to do next. You have small business owners by the way, that don't know what to order. You have breweries that are concerned about how they're going to actually bring in a lunum that they need to have, housing, folks that are trying to build they can't get to steal the concept of trying to get. And you have America's shipping lines, truckers, ports, all of them not knowing how they're going to plan for this next upcoming summer and spring season. So it's
pure chaos and the supply chain. We all remember what happened during the pandemic to our ports and what that did. We recovered from that. We do not need to go back to the uncertainty in trade and so putting tariffs on our partners around the world, and certainly a disrespect that we are showing to Canada. What kind of insane lunatic all's the prime minister, the governor of our fifty first state. I mean, this is I mean truly, only a insane lunatic is going to do that. I don't
think people understand. Oh yeah, that's Trump and Trump. No, this is not Trump being Trump. This is us destroying any sort of respects that we had in the world. People are laughing at us, They're scared of us. We're voting with Ylan and China and North Korea. What the hell is happening to the United States?
Is there anyone in the Admin? Is the Admin just completely as man? I mean, have you found anyone in there where it seems like there's someone who's trying to sort of be useful in some way or reasonable.
No, I wish there was someone in the truck, White House, or anywhere in the government. That was a reasonable person. You know. I remember when they first announced, like Sean Duffy and a lot of folks with well, you know he was in the house. He's not that, you know, he's fine. We'll be able to work with him. I mean, the guy's doing whatever Donald Trump and Elon Musk want. We have literally planes that are catching on fire, they have major accidents and crashes happening, and we're firing four
to five hundred safety techts and FAA workers. In what universe is that actually productive or helpful or safe for the flying public? The FAA right now we know already it's been reported on multiple times. We are already short eight to nine hundred technicians in the work which we were already short that just to stabilize the FAA and our air traffic control system. So what do we do instead? We fire four to five hundred and now we're scrambling. So what happens now? We bring on Elon Musk so
somehow do an assessment to fix the FAA technology. I'm like, holy shit, this isn't a startup. We're going to give Elon Musk control of the fucking air traffic control towers. Is anyone else like as alarmed about this as I am. So that he and his buddies can just throw spaghetti on the wall. He's nineteen twenty year old kids. This is not a video game. These are people's lives. I'm very concerned about the future of air travel if this continues, and so I wish that we had allies. We don't.
Is there any chance that you can sort of stop any of this? Yes, the air traffic is really worrying me. I mean that as someone who is recently conquered a fear of flying. That does not feel good.
No, No, it does not make me feel good, or should anybody, or when your family travels. Look, I think the bright spot here is that we are getting some wins, and so you know, I just I do want to say, Look, the public pressure, the protests, the organizing, the resistance, and the legal cases that we are winning in court are actually making a difference. We are winning some winning significant court cases, and with Republican judges, by the way.
But what are we doing with the FAA.
We have a legal strategy there as well. We're pushing it forward.
So are we fine flying right now?
Yes? Flying is still the safest way to travel. I mean, there's no question flying is still safe. I should be clear about them.
I actually have some issues.
So yes, tell us flying continues to be the safest way to travel, there's no question. But what we're concerned about is the future. We need to make it safe for not less safe, and firing workers at the FAA is not the way to do it, you know, getting Elon Must to come in and somehow using his technology to basically change the way that we interact with planes and instead of the current system we have. I don't
know if that's the right approach. I mean, he's trying to cancel contracts we've had well with other large companies that have gone through a vetting process. Or he can come in and do it himself. No, thank you. Take your young doge team and put them nowhere near our technology in our air traffic control system. So no, it's all concerning. We should be concerned. But we are winning these court cases and we are starting to push back.
Yeah.
Okay, not to like get too much into like this is my mental health issue here, but I just you know, I.
Get a little anxious.
Do you think I'm curious if you could like talk to us about you have these breweries in your district, explain to us a little bit about sort of how good they are to have in your district, et cetera.
We've got about ten breweries dot com, and the breweries right now are freaking out because the price of aluminum is going to start skyrocketing because of the terrorists. You know, these are small business owners. These are real people that are being impacted, that don't have the certainty that are you know, they're they're trying to get by, they're hiring people, they're proud of their business. They had no sense of what the costs are going to be for their business. So,
you know, folks are really feeling the pain. And it's just really disappointing to me that no one in the administration gets that. You know, he's driving up everything. Look, it's funny. This is a man right now that's driving up the price of eggs. He's tanked the stock market, and now he's coming after your beer. I mean, give me a break.
Yeah, and also wine. Right, I'm sober, so I don't really have a horse in those rights. But that seems kind of insane.
Oh, seems totally totally insane. I mean, the costs are what's going up, and people have no idea their costs on their groceries, their gas, it's all going to start going up because of the teriffs. And so Trump's even said, oh yeah, a recession might happen, or Elon Musky like, oh, we gotta feel pain. Well, it's easy to not feel pain when you're a billionaire and you're very rich. But what about working people? What about families that they could care less?
Why do they want to tank the economy? Just not to be a pill here? But can you explain to me what the thinking here is.
Look, I think at the end of the day, what they're trying to do is they're trying to damage all these agencies. They're trying to quote unquote safe money. They're trying to redirect funds so that they can pass a massive tax cut for themselves to get richer. That's what this is all about. And so they don't really care. They don't care about taking the economy, they don't care about hurting working people because they'll view it as savings for their big tax cut. Why do they want to
take on Medicaid? Well, because that's really the only place where they can get the trillions of dollars that they need so they can redistribute all that wealth and harder benefits to give to their billionaire friends. I mean, this is all about it. Anytime you're on I tell people, if you're watching TV and you're seeing them cut the Department of Education or they're attacking Social Security, or they're
going after USAID, why are they doing that the government? Well, they're doing it because all they care about is money. They just care about getting richer. The more and more they do that, the less they're spending on things that people need and people that we need to help, and they can give it back to themselves. They're billion our friends Elon Musk's companies. That's where this is headed, and it's it should sicken everyone.
Thank you so much, Congressman Garcia. I hope I see you soon.
Absolutely, thank you.
Kathy Hochel is the governor of New York.
So first we have to have a minute to talk about how great congestion pricing is, because it's great.
You're a fan, right, Okay?
Isn't everyone who has to live in New York City a fan?
I don't know why not everybody is, but you know, we have a very high percentage of people. More people now prefer to have it than not, depending on which poll you look at. But here's the deal. Congestion is down, but people are still coming. And people were afraid that people would not come into the city, that this would paralyze New York and Broadway shows. I be heard in the shops and the restaurants. We're all going to die.
This was the gloom and doom scenario. And what we realize is people are coming to the city, but guess what they're taking public transit, which was the whole objective. So ridership is up ten percent. People walking the streets. I mean you see this. I walk the streets of New York.
I live here four.
Days a week. It's mobbed. There's this energy and vitality back. But the streets are moving again. Accidents are down, Pedestrian accidents are down, school buses are arriving on time, and even the people from New Jersey who really flipped out over this and didn't want it to happen, their commutes are dramatically faster. So it has really achieved a high quality of life, but also is going to generate revenues
for the mtaight. So I can invest more money into keeping the system strong and actually expanding it.
Listen, I'm a huge fan. But now here's the question. And everyone I know who lives in New York City just thinks it's a game changer. It's ten minutes off anywhere you need to go. It's amazing. Now here's the question. So, of course, because it is so great, Donald Trump is curious about it. Explain to us sort of were you shocked? I mean I was also a little bit shocked, like why does he care and why is he so obsessed with that?
Well, he spent a lot of time in New York City last summer. Why well, he had thirty four convictions right at time, so he was around. He was hearing like the Republicans from the Hudson Valley and from Long Island, we're just making this a political issue. And he started drinking the kool aid of them, saying, oh, this is horrible. And I told him, and I talked to him about it right after the election. I've spent many times on
the phone with him. I went and met him in his office last Friday night a week ago and said, it's working. In fact, I made a really nice brochure you and bleez the colors. The words are big, make New York City great and fast and beautiful. Really to appeal to him directly, right, And I think he feels like he made a commitment before the election. Now he's got the Republicans that are still in his ear, trying to make them happy. But I said, you're a New Yorker.
Traffic is moving faster in front of Trump Tower, Your employees are getting to work faster. Your other CEOs of big companies are really happy about this. So I don't know if we're going to be able to change that, but I feel really confident they will beat him in court. So that's where it's going on when they tell us to stop, because and if you remember what he did, he announced, I'm killing I just killed congestion pricing Long Live the King. That was his tweet, Long Live the King.
So I went holistic. I went into the subway and I said, we've not had a king in two hundred and fifty years. I'm not about to start now. And so I went at it, took it to the mat and here we are. We'll just see what happens. But I don't know why if there was if he was looking at New York City as someone who knows it so well, he would see the incredible benefits for just quality of life and moving traffic and air quality. It's been extraordinary.
Yeah, No, I think it's been a huge game changer. But I'm curious, Like so, we see different relationships. Different governors have different relationships with Trump, right, We've seen people have combative relationships. We've seen, you know, he was very mad at the governor of Maine. You have an interesting position because he does really have a relationship with.
The city and the state.
So how have you been able to sort of have that relationship and also can you protect New Yorkers from some of his really you know, his enormous overstap.
Well, that remains to be seen. And here's how I approached it. Right after election, I said, you know, I don't need to be out there fighting everything that happens. And even after inauguration day, I said, if you want to work with me on major infrastructure, invest in redoing Penn Station, which is a hell hole. Penn stationship much better, a subway system up to Harlem, the Inner Burial Express
for people from Brooklyn and Queen Can get places. You want to work with me on infrastructure, I'm all there, but if you attack our values or come after us in any way, then you've got to pick. You're faking a fight with me, and I don't mind a fight at all. I grew up in a very tough neighborhood in Buffalo and got a lot of brothers, so I say, bring it on. And I would say, we're in that position right now. We've had a lot of pretty high
profile fights and I'll do it. So I'm not looking to hit him on every single thing because we'll lose our credibility, and that's what Democrats be careful about. I mean, I'm not going to hit him on Ukraine this week. Don't have to hit him on certain things. But there's enough material now I don't have to wait very long. Yeah, coming after Medicaid, you're hurting my people, You're hurting my seniors. You're hurting people in nursing homes and dismantling the Department
of Education. So you don't care about kids with disabilities. You don't care about kids having a pelgrant and having a chance to better themselves. So now they actually are with their budget priorities for the Republicans, but also what Trump has done. The fights are right before us now and I can't avoid them any longer.
When you say that to him, when you what is he like? Because he's weirdly not combative in person, right, he doesn't seem like you have captured his ire And I'm wondering, do you feel one on one, I know that one on one he's actually known to be very parasmatic.
So do you I.
Mean, do you you know relatively Yeah, you know, I want to with I mean, you know, but I mean, he did get elected twice, so you know, do you get a pushback right away when you talk to him about stuff like this or does he just sort of, you know, take what he likes.
It's not an angry yell at me in the Oval office right when we ask the question, no, no, But because I know how to appeel to people as well, you're like, hey, mister, you're the first New Yorkers since FDR to sit in this office. And then we're on a tangent about who's got the bigger FDR desk because I have a big FDR desk because he was governor before he was president. We get into the conversation. We talk about the artwork on the walls and the paintings
and fix you know, presidents and all. So there are just quasi normal conversations, right. But that I'm sitting next to Christie Nowman his office. He brought in different people. She says, we're coming after the illegal aliens in the Roosevelt Hotel, and with such disdain, I mean, like as if they're not even human being. So I was so offended. I'm coming after those criminals, criminals, And I said, excuse me, the Rosebot hotels where people go to register when they
come across the border. I'm pretty certain that the Venezuelan gang members and the people on the terrorism watch lists and the gun runners, they're not going and giving their name to us at the Roosevelt Hotel. So I think we're good. You can leave the moms and families alone. I'll help you at the violent criminals. You have a warrant. I'll let you do what you need to do. But don't just come here. So these are the conversations. You have a larger answer to your questions. Like and now,
Tom Holnen just picked a fight with me today. You know, he was all over the news and beating up the governor of New York. Okay, doesn't scare me.
Look, we're kicking on.
Why does it comes Molly picking out each one?
Yeah, no, And I think that's that's really important to.
Hear the rest of the interview. Head over to YouTube and search from Fast Politics with Molly Jung Fast Now, Jesse Cannon, Mali junk Fast. One of the few places we see really really fighting back against Trump is all these ages that are suing the Trump administration constantly, to the point that one of the big conversations these days among people our age is what would you tell your kid to go to school for because of AI right now?
And my answer is somebody who's going to sue the government.
Yeah.
So look from Project twenty twenty five, you and I both know part of the game plan here is to dismantle the Department of Education. Some of that is because they hate poor children, some of that is because they hate public schools. Some of that is because they hate Jimmy Carter. All three can be venged by closing the Department of Education. This is actually the Democratic Attorney's General,
who you and I have been interviewing pretty regularly. That group knows what they're doing, and they have been just on it with the courts, and they are again together from twenty states and the District of Columbia, filing the legal challenges in response to the administration's dismissal of more
than one three hundred workers of the department. The layoffs are effectively just mantling the Department of Educations, which is of course, as you and I both know the goal, so I think it's really good they are on it and they are going to fight to keep our federal government alive and hopefully it works.
Agreed.
That's it for this episode of Fast Power Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday to hear the best minds and politics make sense of all this chaos. If you enjoy this podcast, please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.
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