Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Patty Murray & Gov. Howard Dean

Vermont governor and presidential candidate Howard Dean. Welcome back to Fast Politics, Howard Dean, Thank you for having me on. Very excited to have you. I wanted to talk to you about the continual decline of the Republican Party. I mean, what is happening. Well, I don't think it's a decline. I think they've simply become an authoritarian party modeled after what the Russians are doing, or what the Hungarians are doing,

or the polls are doing. What it is is a decline of one of the two major parties in the United States of America. It's a decline in the interests of democracy. But I think they remain very dangerous for the country and for the future of America. What you're saying is interesting and something I have not heard quite articulated this way. Can you you think this was sort of nut Gagridge to Donald Trump or do you think

this started before that? I think New started it. There's always been, you know, right wing crack pots in the Republican Party. You know that the John Birch Society and all these kinds of stuff that's been going on since the forties and fifties. But this is the first time that the crack pots have taken over par and it's

very scary. I mean, the santist is pretending to run for president is an out and out racist, I mean to attach, I mean, it was bad enough for Glen Glenn Yuncan to run around Virginia with his nice fleece on Talking Night and then talking about CRT in the public schools, which of course doesn't exist in any public school in America. That was racist. But to say it just makes no bones about it. You know, if you teach black or you're denigrating white people. Well, it's pretty

clear who was appealing to. And he's one of the front runners of the for the nomination in in two thousand twenty four. So we're really at a crossroads here. There are people of principle in the Republican Party. The problem is most of them black courage. Yeah, and as a disaster for the United States, that does sound like a very accurate assessment. I want to just like drill

down on this for a second. Do you think this happened because the party, the Republican Party is so profoundly weak and they just couldn't stand up to Trump or do you think they just decided to make this deal with the devil. I think it's a combination. They are weak, they have lost their connection with average Americans, so they rely on what fascists rely on, which is grievance politics.

It really does sound like Hitler when they when he starts talking, except instead of about Jews, it's about acts and women, take away women's rights, take away black rights. They shouldn't have had him in the first place, or the Mexican rapists and all that kind of stuff that Trump was talking about. Although it did sort of start with ging Rich when he decided the way to take power was to blow up your opposition and to to demonize them. And of course, you know you fight fire

with fire. So that's what's really split the country apart. That didn't start with Trump, but he English laid the groundwork for Trump to emerge twenty years later. One of the things you've been really involved in is trying to help Democrats win, right, like win every state. Do you think there's an opportunity here for Democrats to pick up these non zalodous, more normal voters. Well, yes, because there's only so much market in a true democracy for racism

and bigotry. You will get a significant number of people, but you won't get the majority unless there's real hardship. Word. It appears that the Democrats are out of touch. I think Biden. One of Biden's much overlooked qualities is that he is sort of everyman. He is a working class guy and relates to that. And I think, you know, he is old and all that stuff, but people recognize in the working class enough, people recognize that he is

a decent human being. Warnock and ass Off would not be in the Senate today if it hadn't been for Donald Trump. I think that just there were enough Republicans, particularly Republican women, that just couldn't stomach the bigotry and the nastiness, and that's of course now percolating down to Santis is about to run a candidacy based on bigotry and nasty noess he has. I can't think of a single positive thing that he's talked about or done. But he was reelected by a huge margin, although against a

very weak candidate. Yeah, a weak candidate, but also a weak party structure. And you have been very involved in party structure. Part of your career has been at the d n C. So explain to us how you fix that. Well. Florida has been a particu gular disaster for as long as I can remember when I was at the NC. It is it is, it's very borganized, it's very it's all about the donors. There are even state laws that make it difficult for both parties in terms of how

officers get appointed. Uh, it is a disaster. And it's also an old people's state. And my generation sadly has gone from the generation that fought for civil rights and against the Vietnam War to Trumpist or some horrible number like that. I mean, boomers are now have given up any idealism that we grew up with. And that, and of course, what what state has more boomers than anybody else? So Florida is going to be really hard to to reorganize. We didn't do it. We didn't organize it very well.

Obama that one of the greatest feats that Obama did when he won the election was to win Florida. He had to put his entire organization in there. And the guy that ran it was the guy that ran the d n C for him, Uh, you know, after he won the nomination and um and he was and he went down to Florida and won the one Florida for Obama. But they had a set up their entire and entire organization that was parallel. Who was it who ran for I can't think of his last name. His first name

was Paul, and I can't remember his last name. But he was also the guy that engineered Obama's win in Iowa in the primary, which set him on it on the way road to the presidency. Right, Florida is a special case. But then we opened ourselves up to also New York State, which had had become a out of nowhere disaster. Can you talk about that a little bit? That was just the usual New York self absorption. I mean they're always you know, New Yorkers are always about themselves.

And then we had particularly awful chairman who was I mean, you know, the DP Triple C is not distinguished itself for a long time, even though Nancy was probably the greatest speaker that in the history of the United States House, you know, and New York. So they had a chairman from New York who J. Jacobs, who sucks. Oh yeah, no, yes, but the deep triple C was from charity d J.

Jacobs shouldn't be there. But yes Maloney son Patrick Maloney, who jumped out of his race into somebody else's district because he got redistricted, and then lots of money, and then he focused all on his own race and and then you know, New York just can't get out of their own way because they're so democratic that they all fight among themselves. I mean a perfect example is the example of Dan Golden. So Dan, as you know, he's

going to be a good congress person. He got elected with about twenty six percent of the vote because there were five Progressives that fought among each other and all ran in the primary. I mean, this is the kind of stuff that kills the Democratic Party. You know, the idea is to sit together and actually work something out instead of going on your own trip. I always say that Congress is like or Washington in general is like middle school on steroids. They're smart, they're hard working, and

they're thirteen years old. It's all about them all the time. And sort of New York politics is like that too. Yeah, no question. I mean, do you think that new Workers can get it together for twenty four I hope so, because Kirsten Gillibrand's gonna run again and I think she's a terrific senator and she probably will run against Zelden

or somebody like that, so it won't be an easy race. Right, It does seem to me like there's a chance if Democrats get their shipped together that they could win back the House through New York. Absolutely right. And we what we need is, I don't know who the new d trip chair is. We need really somebody who's strong with a national picture instead of somebody who's focused on their own race. The thing that John Patrick Maloney did which was like baffling, was the day before his vote, he

went on meet the press. Well, he should never have been appointed to that job in the first place. That was just really bad judgment. Yeah, the New York Assembly has some blame here because they kept spitting back the same redistressing plan that the court told him they couldn't have, So what a surprise the Court did something else, and that was the you know, I mean, they could have made some compromises. This is look for all New York's faults.

It's not in North Carolina where the court is just does whatever, you know, or Wisconsin where you have a you know, right wing court and they are basically just politicians, just like the Supreme Court. New York has a functioning government, and so to lose the seats there was just an excusable But part of it was the Assembly's fault because they kept stuffing the list back and thought they were

going to run over the judiciary. Well, you just don't run over the judiciary, and you're not supposed to run over the judiciary and democracy. Yeah, I mean, I feel like Democrats sort of got too overconfident with the redistrict doing and it bit them. You mean in New York, Yeah, in New York, Yeah, absolutely right. I don't know what they were thinking, but they weren't clearly thinking. So I want to talk to you about the national picture for

a minute. Um, the House belongs to Republicans. If Democrats get their ship together, they could because there are a lot of districts that are Biden districts that that Democrats could win back. But then there is this very fa cocta that's the medical term, uh Senate map. Can we talk about that? Yeah, that'll be very hard for us. Hanging onto the Senate will be hard. I think we're gonna do it, but it's gonna be very difficult. We're gonna need to replace people like Stabin. Oh, I think

we can do that in a Democratic side. Tester is gonna be hard if he if he runs again, it's going to be a hard seat to hold, although he's the best person for that job. He gets Montana. The one thing that we have in our on our in our favor this Montana is not a state of crackpots. And that's most of what they have in the legislature and the Congress, I mean as crackpots. So at some point, if we run a very moderate, thoughtful person like John Tester, if he doesn't, if he chooses not to run, I

think we have a shot at that seat. People get sick of this right wing nuts stuff, the ones that aren't sucked into it, and you know, with the way the Germans were in so you know, and I think the economy is getting better. Yeah, has done what he said he's gonna do, so I think that's gonna be helpful to us. But you're right, is a tough map. One of the spots that is going to be particularly

complicated is Arizona. It looks like the trumpy candidates are gonna get in there, so that's good, but you really could be looking at a three way race there. There will be a three way race. I mean, Diego is a good candidate, he's not going to get to And the question is who was Cinema going to take votes for from moderate Republicans or Democrats? And I don't know the answer to that, And there's probably there will shortly,

I'm sure be some polling. I expect Carrie Lake to run for the Senate, and you know that will be a very hard one for us. Yeah, carry Lake has only gotten crazier since she lost, that's true, but she did get about of the vote, so yeah, you know, it tells you something about the state of Arizona. But they have a great senator in Mark Kelly, you know, somebody who was not a great campaigner but turned. I think it's going to be a terrific governor and that's

going to be very helpful. Yeah, so we'll see what Arizona is going to be on hard times because water and when people get on hard times, they sometimes do irrational things. Of the polls, So I'm concerned about Arizona. Yeah, that is a good point, And I mean, I do think we are really seeing climate stuff happening right in front of our eyes in a way that I mean, I think twenty four climate will take center stage on

a lot of things. I do too, and I think that's going to be very helpful to the Democrats because the Republican there's still pretty much climate deniers. Eventually, do you think this fever dream breaks and Republicans, I mean decide that they're gonna pivot back to pretending not to be insane. The only way for that to happen is for them to lose. And that's the scary thing. I mean, the country is really at a crossroads. We could tip

over into an authoritarian state. We have a court that's corrupt, that was put there by billionaires through the Federal Federalist Society that are essentially doing the bidding of the right wing. We have a party that doesn't respect democracy and democrat democratic institutions and is making excuse for people who stormed the Capitol and killed some police officers. When you get people like that as to one of the two major parties in America, America is at a crossroads, and there's

no guarantee we're going to recover. That's what everybody's working really hard for, particularly the seventeen to twenty five year old who are doing a terrific job except for their voting percentages. They need to get up quite a bit. Weren't you heartened by these mid terms? Yes, very much so. It seemed like a country that was coming to its census. Yeah, and you we're talking about the Senate. Biden runs again.

I believe he's gonna win if his health stay is good, even against the Santis, who's not a very attractive candidate in his views. Of course, they're just antediluvian. He's already catering to the worst elements of the Republican Party. It's gonna be hard for him to come back from that. I'm an optimist, but this is very very serious and we could tip over into what would end the end the United States as we know it. Yeah, I think that's really important to keep that in the focus. What

are you watching just now? I mean there's a lot of stuff happening that sort of off the radar but important, Like what's happening in Wisconsin, you know, the sort of off year election stuff. What are you watching? I'm watching the Supreme Court in Wisconsin. That's very very important. I'm watching some court decisions that are getting made around the country about some of the election fraud that's going on on the Republican side, or the attempted election fraud. So far,

the course have mostly resisted it. I'm watching some of the corruption in places like the Georgia Legislature UM where they have already passed Jim Crow laws and essentially the new disguised Jim Crow. And I've sort of given up on Florida. I think Florida is just going to have to you know, they just seem to want to collect people that aren't going to be with the where the

majority of Americans are. I mean, they did also I mean a lot of those people did move there to be together, right, so maybe they should all be sequestered in Florida. I don't know. I mean it's just it is like, I mean, they have definitely they're making each other more right way, and let's not for Yeah, this

is not confined to De Santis. They have a senior senator who are think he's a senior senator now, Rick Scott, who was indicted his company was indicted and eventually found guilty of cheating the government medicare of one point five billion dollars. I mean, the people that are being elected by the people of Florida to serve them. You know, you can't blame the politicians there. There's something the matter with going on in Florida. There. It's very hot and

very huge. It's got to be the weather. But yeah, this is all really important. I just I'm curious one last thing, which is in speaking Florida, there is this college board thing where De Santis is targeting African American ap history. The college board is going along with it. I mean, what is the recourse here? I mean it just seems unconscionably. I mean it's a ridiculous but do you think there's any sort of recourse for the Biden administration here, I have no idea. That's a legal question.

You know. The carbon College Board has always been pretty craven. I mean, those people are in that, and the and the people who do the testing and all that. Then it's all about the money for them. So um. In fact, I think it's great that a lot of these universities are not bothering to take those tests anymore. I think the African American history in high schools is very worthwhile. It's an important part of our country's history that's never been taught properly, and it is beginning to be now.

I think what the college Board is doing watering down the course is not critical. I don't think we should have getting a big fight about that, because the truth is, the teachers are going to teach that course the way they want to teach the course, the way the AP people tell them they have to. So although obviously isn't gonna get taught in Florida, I'm sort of almost ready

to give up on Florida. I mean, you know, firing the school board members, firing the superintendents who are very popular among the parents, if the Florida people don't get their act together and get rid of these nutcases. I mean, Florida has now become one of the most corrupt legislatures in the in the United States. It's a disaster, and it's a big state, it's an important state. But I just scratched my head and think, what the hell is going on down there? We're going on with this voting. Um,

I have one last question for you. You are a doctor. We are coming true hopefully again, you know, with bearing some other mutation this pandemic. Are you disappointed that Republicans used this as a way to divide people and that there wasn't more coming together? Yeah, of course I am. I mean they look but those were the Republicans that you know would be happier in Hungary or Poland. I mean,

these are not Democrats and they're barely Americans. It's the same technique they use on race, the same technique they use on gay people. You isolate people, You make them feel aggrieved, you make them feel like violence is okay, even though you supposedly don't condone it. Very fine people on both sides. When you're talking the Nazis protesting against the march in uh In, anti racist march in in Charlottesville. I mean, that's what parties who are in authoritarian lye

inclined do. This is an authoritarian party and they're they're in a battle for the soul of their own party. They're not going to win that battle internally. We're gonna have the way to do it is what I call reductive reduction of cognitive dissidence. You show them that this is a losing proposition for them, and as a losing proposition for their voters. And when the voters get wise

and the Republicans get wise, they'll come back. But as we saw in Germany in the thirties and the forties, there's no guarantee that they're going to come back without self destructing or destroying the whole country. Yeah, Howard Dean, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Nancy Pelosi is the former Speaker of the House and represents California's eleventh district. Welcome too Fast Politics. Representative Nancy Pelosi, Thank you, Molly. I'm very excited to be with you.

I've heard wonderful things and um both very much looking forward to being on Well, we're delayed to have you so I wanted to ask you. One of the many times I wanted to have you on this podcast was one I was watching the c SPAN coverage and you had written down all of the numbers, and you had calculated that Kevin McCarthy did not have the votes. He

didn't until he did. But the fact is that was the mystery to all of us as to why all of that wasn't done, shall we say, b ours, so that his eventual election as Speaker would be clear to the public. What we were talking about with the numbers, say, if you have X number of presents, then you need fewer number of yeses. But you guys have too many

presents because the demographs more yes. So again it's complicated what actually happened at the end, because I would be there when the Republicans said they wanted to adjourn, and we've ended up because we thought that the public should, we should have a Congress that was functioning, that our member should get sworn in, that we could engage staff, and that we could be a Congress of the United States. So just get your act together and get this done.

They said they were saying, yes, they wanted to adjourn and hold it over until the next week, and we said, no, get it done now. But what happened then one of there are no votes came forward and said it's okay. On the next vote, I'll be with you. I'll be present or whatever. I'll be an okay vote on the next vote, I'll be okay. Then immediately Kevin said okay, everybody vote no on adjourned it. So that's what happened.

They didn't They would have gone into the weekend with nothing except and if theirs then said I'll be with you anyway, it wouldn't be inevitable that there would be a Republican Speaker of the House. So it was just a question of time. Get it done. I was hoping Kevin could get it done on the first ballot. What is it they need? What do you have to do?

Just get it done. But anyway, I was showing the members how you can't keep getting presents, people voting present and no and have it add up to a majority of the members of Congress. I read a story once about it, the kind of vote whipper you were when you were speaker, and how you would double, triple, quadruple check to make sure that you had the votes. Yeah, it feels like I mean McCarthy has brought a bunch of things to the floor, many a few of which

have not passed, which he had tried to. You know, he got ilhan Omar kicked off a committee that was I guess he was very pleased with that. I mean, do you just watch it and so sort of like, how is he doing it this way? And why is he not more careful with the vote whipping. Well, I think he's getting the majority vote on the floor, but it's not something that's going to pass in the Congress of the United States. It's just not going to pass in the Congress. It's not going to become the law

of the land. And again, what is the what is the important use of time there in order to move us forward? We have important work to do. I don't think that at this point he will fail to get the Republican votes he needs or some when he gets serious about the legislation, we'll see. But on some of these uh so he's say messages that he's putting out there, he probably will continue to have the votes, but who knows.

I mean, he only has a five vote margin. One person sadly is um not well, so there's a four vote margin, and that's tough. If you had Santos, If Santos had been a Democrat, it never would have been. But if he had been, would you have pushed him to resign? I mean, McCarthy thinks this vote helps him, but has continually been such an embarrassment. Well, he's an embarrassments. Question is are these people embarrassed? I mean, quite frankly, he may be an embarrassment, but some of their members

are a danger to the American people. To watch what is happening on the Republican side is really sad. This is the Grand Old Party. I keep telling Republicans, take back your party. This isn't who you are. You've done great things for America, You've had great presidents of the United States, and now you look like a punch line. Okay,

good joke. But again, his behavior is such that it does not bring dignity and respect to the Congress, to the House of Representatives, and that is a rule of the House that your behavior should not being disrespect to the House. So he's already violated that. Whether he has violated law in terms of campaign contributions, whether he has I think two things all the things they talk about,

enhancing his resume, all that stuff, but terrible. But what really matters is did he break the law, he violate the rules of the House, and did he commit hubris by associating himself in a way that wasn't true with the Holocaust? We hold that in a very special place, and clearly he did not. I don't spend a whole lot of time on him, because again, he's not a legislative danger at the moment. I think it's a shame that he is in Congress. I think it's a shame

on the Republicans that he's there. But again, they have a good deal of shame going on on their side of the aisle in New York State. I'm in New York City. Actually, we've had a really not great run in these mid terms, despite the fact that Democrats had an amazing run everywhere else. I mean, you know a lot about sort of the party and how to get

it done. What are your thoughts about New York City. Well, let me just say about the election writ large, I kept telling people all along, all over the country, with campaigning for candidates or making speeches to a broader audience, or raising money whatever, that we were going to win. I said, do not pay attention to any of these pundits or sitting someplace in d C deciding they know what's going on in the rest of the country. Our

candidates came forth after January six. They came forth with patriotism, with courage, and with confidence that they could win. They knew why they were running and they were determined to win. So I felt very confident that we could hold the House. The others said, oh, no, you have the wrong message, and un us and that, and I said, no, we don't have the wrong message. Oh, your message is in the rear view mirror. No it isn't. We know our districts.

Our candidates know their districts. We had a clear distinction between Democrats and republican in terms of the contrast about who was for lowering the cost of prescription drugs and who was there with pharma, to use one example, who was there for women's right to choose and who was there to criminalize women's right to choose in the country.

And so people knew in their districts the importance of democracy, the importance of our freedoms, the importance of kitchen table issues, like the cost of prescription drugs, and they were doing very well in their districts. Even though the punditry, even the Democratic counttry was saying, oh, you don't have it wrong. We were saying to them, police, don't talk about something you don't know about. So we felt pretty good about

our race. Ten days before, two weeks before New York started to show weakness at the statewide level, and all the focus was then to win the governorship, which was very very important to do, but it did come at the expense of our races a long and in the Hudson River Valley, Hudson Valley, and that was most unfortunate to how came you could be speaker in this term.

You never know, you don't know with all the things that are going on, but we certainly have the capacity to win it in four I hope it's a lesson learned for some who think they know what's going on in races that they have no knowledge of, that they are second guessing. How we have chosen messages for the district, not us, the candidates who believe they can win, who know what works, and all of these are consistent with

our values and our priorities. And not consistent with hearsay rumor and coundentry and Washington d C. So New York was a disappointment. I was told, actually that New York could pick up seats. I said, I don't count it that way, and I do not count it that But no, we did not expect to lose four seats. There three seats that were actually Democratic seats that went bad, and one that was was Jean Patrick Maloney. He lost by a half a percentage point. When the governor lost by

like ten points in his district. Other statewide office holders went down in their percentage in those particular districts as well. Yeah, it was mind blowing. So but you think the governorship ended up distracting from the congressional seats. The fact that they did not address the political concern that was clear early enough had an impact on the House seats. Let me say this, I'm a former cheer of the California Democratic Party years ago. If I want to win statewide,

I know what I have to do. If I want to win congressional or legislative seats, I know what I have to do. If I have to want to do both, I want to do both. Then you have to do both. So, for example, one win statewide, what do you do you do Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose like that. But if you want to win seats in those democratic areas, those seats are one right, So what choice had to

be made? So in New York, the representation was that they were doing both, but the downside of the governor's race was too. I mean, Sean Patford is winning, is losing by half a point, and the governor is losing by ten points in his district. You see what the challenge this challenges. And again I I fully support winning the governor's race, but I did not think it had to be at the expense of the control of the House of Representatives in California. You have made a statement

on that senatorial seat that is everybody wants it. Yes, Can you just tell our listeners what that endorsement was. My statement was that if Senator Feinstein decides to seek real leftction, she has my wholehearted support. If she chooses not to run, I'm supporting Adam Schiff for Senate. California is a huge, wonderful state, probably the fourth largest economy

in the world. Forty million people, our balance of trade because of agriculture, and not so many things are meaning the US balance of trades meant much of its springs from California, whether it's movies or produce, and so we

need a strong leader in the Senate. Senator Feinstein, in my statement, I spend most of my time singing her praises, that she has one of the finest legislative records in and Senate history, that she has been a champion on the public safety in terms whether you're talking about what's about safety and security, whether you're talking about assault weapon ban, or you're talking about Intelligence Committee, where she is such a champion as a chair, we want a Senator who

will continue that strength. Adam Schiff as a person who is the chair of the until just now, and the Speaker took him off the committee because he was too effective in his he Adam was too effective in his opposition to Donald Trump, and Kevin was so catering to mar Lago. But until then he was chair of the

Intelligence Committee. And so from the standpoint of our national security to the season nexus between national security and the fact that our security is also measured in the health, education, well being of the American people. So he sees that connection between security and economy and kitchen table issues for the American people. I'm very, very excited about supporting him.

Should Diane decide not to run again. She has been remarkable, an icon a woman and government and politics, just iconic figure my love and respect. But if she decides not to go, I think we need a strong senator, both in terms of the security of our country, the strength of our economy, and the fairness of it all in terms of addressing disparities and the rest. Adam Schiff has done this again and again. And when you ongoing basis, people like Tucker Carlson have spread horrible rumors about you.

You have been demonized, as many successful women have. This leads to an actual concrete attack on your family in your home. Are you furious? I mean, I'm furious for you, and I'm not. You know, first of all, they if they demonized me because I was effective and biggest fundraiser pass legislation always. But I also give credit to my members. I'm not their unifier. Were unified by our values and our members are very courageous to do what is needed to be done. So But because I have an effective

record politically has been more importantly policy wise. They decided they had to try to take me down, which is sad because that's not what politics should be about. But it is what it has been about, and that was a plan on the part of the Republican National Committee to do just that. But what's sad for me is that while I'm at the target, uh, they went after my husband, and that is really a horrible thing. Take

it to a larger place. What I'm concerned about, and have been for a number of years, is that when I've encouraged women to run for when I came to Congress, or twelve Democratic women eleven Republican women three out of four hundred and thirty five terrible. So I said, I can't you know, I'm a former chair of the party. I'm political. So we have to change that. And for box Or and others, we mismade a decision to do that, and now we have ninety nine nine d Democratic women.

We certainly want more. The Republicans have gone to maybe thirty or something like that, so they have grown their number two not what we have, but they have more, and we certainly want more women on both sides of the aisle. But the fact is, when you talk to women and say that our country needs you, there's nothing more wholesome for our government and our political system than the fuller participation of women in the process. That you

will make a tremendous difference. They say back to me, I could never subject my family because many of them are much younger than I now. But you know, when they start off, I can't subject my family to the negative attitude. I can't have my children coming home from school crying because somebody said saw something on TV that wasn't true about me, And so that's what concerns me more.

Of course, I'm most concerned about what happened to my husband and the threats to me and my family, but again to what it means in the larger sense, two women saying, I just I just don't know that I can subject my family to this. Now many have and uh, they are courageous and and you know, there's much been written and said about threats to members of congressmen and women, and that's most unfortunate. But I resent the impact of that their negative attitude towards me has had on other

women taking the stand up. Had women tell me that after some of the negative ads that have been played against them. People they know well cross the street when they see them coming and and their children will come home crying, as I said, and that's just not what politics should be about. So I've always said, if we want more women in politics, we have to raise the civility and lower the role of money, and we'll get more women to run. And that when women succeed, America succeeds.

And I feel very I believe, very strongly, and that is your husband doing better. Only you're kind to ask. Uh, he's about a halfway there. The doctor told him about six months to be sort of normal. We just went past three months. Has three more months and we hoped that by then he'll be close to normal. I do uh enjoy taking him some places because the doctor also said he has to have some things to look forward to. So we went to Kenny Center Honors and oh, he

came to the unveiling of my portrait. And there are different things. But I appreciate your asking. People are always asking and praying for him, and I'm very very grateful for that. Thank you so much for all your time. This was so great. I appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. I have to see you sometime soon. I know you. Our dear listeners are very busy and you don't have time to sort through the hundreds of pieces of pundentry each week. This is why every week I put together

a newsletter of my five favorite articles on politics. If you enjoy the podcast, you will love having this in your inbox every Friday. So sign up at Fast Politics pod dot com and click the tab to join our mailing list. That's Fast politics pod dot com. Senator Patty Murray is the senior senator from Washington State. Welcome to Fast Politics, Senator Patty Murray. Well, nice to talk to you. Very excited to have you here. You are the President

pro temp of the United States Senate. What does that mean? We call it president pro tim. I think there's a longer way to pronounce temperary or something that I go with President pro tim. Very exciting and what does it mean exactly? The President pro tim is actually the person that presides when the Vice president is not here to do it. There are ministerial duties to it. I opened the Senate this morning, um as part of it, part of my job, uh and importantly, third in line to

the president. So I have to stay abreast of absolutely everything happening domestically and internationally in case something horrible happens, which we all presume will not, but I have to be ready for that ship. How do you get this job? But I've been around a long time. To be seniority and my colleagues vote for me to do that is it's quite cool. So I want to talk to you. You came in, you were elected in which was this

year the woman? You came in on? You know, in a group of women, you have you have made women's house a big issue. We have just seen the fall of Row. Explained to me what that has meant to you. I mean, I know what it's meant to me and my mother. It's just heartbreaking. I did come in before I was elected, they were all of two women in

the Senate out of a hundred. We've made progress. Actually, when I was elected, we got to be six and they called it the Year of the Woman, which seems just kind of crazy, but uh, and you know, women have become more and more part of the political process of serving and positions, being a voice for their constituents, and obviously making sure that women have a place in our country economically and be able to have their voice be heard and have issues solved in a way that

works for them. So in my career, in my lifetime, to see the courts overturned Row and specifically say to women you no longer have a choice about your life and your health is going to be made by a politician is just devastating. But I'm not one who just you know, Carls in a corner. I'm fighting back, and so are women and men across this country. And that gives me hope, um, that we will be able to when we get the votes and everybody works hard past

the protections back into law at the federal level. So marriage was codified by the Congress. I mean it seems like Row, it seems like Row should be but clearly, I mean, that's a much heavier left it is right now. But I think what I saw happen since Rowe fell is that people who just had that attitude of well politics doesn't affect me, that somebody else all of a sudden realized it's them, and it's that understanding gross and

people see what is at risk. Um, I think they will become more actively involved and we will at some point see ROW codified into law at the federal level. But nobody should think that's easy. That means electing people across the country. It means pushing. It means keeping it front and center, fighting for it day after day, and you know, we all have to be a part of this.

You had this very interesting reelection where Republicans got very excited and thought somehow they were going to dispose see you, and they were brutally put in their place. I mean, were you worried at all? You know, I don't take any election for granted. I believe it's a time where you really have to go out and talk to your constituents millions of people, tell them what you're fighting for, what you believe in, what you can do as their

voice here in Congress. And I did that and put that to work, and of course the result was that I won in a very big way. I'm being I remember hearing that and thinking, because you know, Republicans, I mean, they really were like, we're going to do this, and I was like, no, you're not. But who is still? I know? So I want to ask you, you really

know how the Senate works. Um Democrats don't hold the Congress don't hold the House anymore, but I feel like there's a tremendous appetite for bipartisanship, you know, Molly, I think that's absolutely right, because I really do think at the end of the day, will understand we have differences of opinion, but they don't want chaos. They actually want

their country to be okay. They want to get up every morning, take care of themselves, their families, do their jobs without worrying what the heck is going on in Washington, d c. And whether it's going to impact them in

their lives. So I think people want stability, and the way we do that is to do our jobs here making sure that we pass our government funding bills in a regular way so people don't have to worry at the end of the year that the government's going to shut down and all that bugaboo uh, and that they

really want us to be here doing our jobs. And I'm kind of excited that the four people that are at the top of the most important committee to do that, the appropriations bills, UH, the Republican and Democrat in both the House and Senate, our women, and we come to work every day to get things done. We don't want chaos. We want to do our jobs. We know it's hard work. We don't skip over pieces of it. We don't pretend

to sies. We go to work. And that gives me a lot of hope that we can show this country that we can operate and function within a political climate that, yeah, is sometimes very hard. Tell us who the people are on Appropriations in the Senate, it's you. You're the chair. Yeah, I chair the Senate Appropriations Committee. My vice chair Republican counterpart is Susan Collins. In the House, k Granger is the chair, Republican chair, and Rosa Dolora is her counterpart,

the Democratic leader in that side. We know Rosa de Laura wow, because she is New Haven's congresswoman and has purple hair. More importantly, will you just tell our listeners for the people who are like my dad, not that I don't love my dad, what Appropriations does. Absolutely. The Appropriations is the committee that decides where and how all the funding in our government goes. Covers everything from defense non defense, things from education to NIH research, to aggregate

cultural spending to foreign operations, the whole gamut. It's like your family budget is in front of you. You know, you've got to pay your rent or your mortgage. You gotta pay for food, You got to send your kids to college. You gotta make sure that you got money for whatever sports equipment your kids need. Um, we look at everything within our quote country family budget and decide what's going to be the priorities and how we make sure it is funded in a way that works for us.

And I always say, our budget and spending really is a reflection of our values. What do we want in this country, the values that we want to make sure we're investing in for our families and our communities. You have this trauma with what's happening right now with McCarthy trying to default, Republicans trying to hold the American budget hostage by threatening to default on our debt. What do

you think about that? I think that's horrendous. Look if if you decide you are going to buy a house, and you go through all the process and you say this is what it's gonna cost me, and I'm gonna pay my bill. Um, when it comes to I'm going to go forward with this, you sign it all and then the first month you get your mortgage bill, you go, oh, I'm not going to pay this, and it just didn't

work that way. When we as Congress decide this is where our money is going to go, and we sign contracts to make sure that we're paying for what we um decided to have, we can't turn around a few months later and say to our two people we owe money to that we're not going to pay the bill. That that is crazy, and to use that to hold us hostage our job to get our appropriations, bills, our budget done, the work we need to do is just playing politics with the nation's credit. That is dangerous and

we can't allow it. So what happens now? I mean, is there anything that Democrats can do, or even that Biden can do? I mean, I feel like Biden has learned a lesson from Obama's experience with dealing with the House Republicans on this, and he's just said he's not going to do it. But I mean, this still could play out very close to the deadline, right. I would say to anybody who is gonna have to who's bought something,

pay your bill. I would said to my country, hey, you don't get to the time you pay that bill, and then say, well, I'm not gonna pay this bill unless you whatever. We just can't do that. So I say to McCarthy to Republicans in the House, into our country, pay our bills, and then yeah, if you want to have a debate about where that money should be spent for the following year, what our priorities are, what our budget should be, put it in the place where it's

supposed to be. But don't play with our nation's credit. That is dangerous and costly. So I think McCarthy loses in the end if he tries to pay politics with this. Our country does not want to default on our debt. It would be devastating, and I think he has set himself up to have to say a face by saying, oh, never mind, which you know, nobody wants to put him in that position. He's put himself in that position. But

just let's do our job under Trump. Three times the Republicans voted to pay our bills to raise the death ceiling. This is playing politics now, and it's wrong. Do you feel that having been a preschool teacher has helped you deal with Washington DCA? Oftentimes I feel like I'm looking at the face of preschoolers. Um you know you have to be tough. You have to say it's my turn to talk. You have to say, you know it's time to put your maths away. Um, you have to say,

we've got work to do. And then there's times where you, you know, really come together and sing a song. But oftentimes within your class, you always have the bully, you always love, the person who speaks too much, the child. That's my world. You've been in the state for I mean, I don't think of such a long time ago, but it is. I mean, you've seen a real chain in American politics. Can you just talk about that for a minute. I do see change in that. It's much more hyper politically,

I think than when I first got here. But there was politics when I came in n There was disagreements, but there was also a consensus among Republicans that when you fight for something, at the end of the day, you have to find a compromise. That is how our country works. And finding those people who still understand that that's the job we came here to do is getting

very difficult. But I will say to everyone, there are people who understand that though we're elected to fight for what our beliefs is, if we want our country to work. We have to listen to our counterparts, find common ground, and move the ball forward. That's what I try to do every day. Are you happy that Susan Collins got

re elected? You know, I'm delighted to have Susan asked my counterpart on the Appropriations Committee, because she shares the value I just talked about when it comes to getting things done. She came here to get things done. She knows that if we don't pay our bills, if we don't put together appropriations bills and we don't decide where our spending is going to go first, we haven't done our job, and be we're doing a disservice to all of our country because we're not investing in where we

need to invest. We've not done our job. She has committed to doing that with me. We've had great conversations. We're working well together. We do disagree on some issues and that's fine. We know where those are, but we find out where we agree and right now we agree it's our job to get our job done. There are some Red state senators who have come in basically on very much sort of maga, more like congressional campaigns. Are you anxious about working with those people. Well, I find

people who I can work with. There are people who are elected to office today who feel their only job here is to come and say no, no, no no. Well, you know, how do you pass a budget here in the majority party? If every one of your members in the Republican caucus in the House, I think that the only vote they can take is no. They're in the majority, they have got to work to pass bills. You can't come here and just say I'm not doing anything because

your country stops moving. We have a job to do, and I'm hoping we continue to find people who are willing to do it. Thank you so much, Senator Patty Murray. Nice to talk to you. Jesse Cannon, Molly jung Fast, that cookie cookie woman from Georgia that we know as Marjorie Jewish Space Laser's Taylor Green. Nothing cookie about the

slow sliding into fascism, but yes, she does absolutely, unequivocally suck. Listen, don't you talk like you know things, because she knows more than you, buddy, because she's going to tell you, oh, no question about what CRT really is. Oh please do let me let me let her in like you real Festo, can you tell me how much how much COVID cash

went to CRTRT critical race theory and education. It's it's a racist, uh curriculum used to teach children, uh that somehow their white skin is not equal to black skin and other things in education. No, I do not know that, but I do know that there's provisions that the federal funds generally are not used. They're supposed to be used for curriculum. It's a state, Mr Didero. I have to tell you in Illinois that they received five point one billion um at at an elementary school there that that

used it for equity and diversity. Um, so it's it's being used for these things. Mr Didero. Can you do five point one billion dollars to one elementary school? You know? I went to her to get covered where she got that statistic. It turns out was the Gateway pund did thick tech tour. Yeah, just just to be clear for for the Libel suit. That's a joke. People, they're so Gateway Pundon institute. It is, it's its own think tank.

We're all gonna die. Marjorie Taylor Green is going to end up as a Republican Speaker of the House, and uh the end. There you go, Ladies and gentlemen. That's it for this episode of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to her the best minds in politics, makes sense of all this chaos. If you enjoyed what you've heard, please send it to a friend and keep the conversation going. And again, thanks for listening.