Nancy Pelosi on Joe Biden, Tim Walz and Donald Trump

the remarkable thing about the past couple of months in politics has been watching the Democratic party act like something we have not seen for a long time a political party a party that makes decisions collectively a party that does hard things because it wants to win a party that is more than the vehicle for a single usually man's Ambitions but parties are made of people and in this case the party was in particular made of a person Nancy Peli one of the longest serving speakers the first female speaker of the house and one of the it sometimes feels like last people left in American politics who knows how to wield power and knows why she wants to wield power she's a new book coming out the art of power and she came by the times to talk about what she has learned why she does what she does and how she sees this moment in American politics Nancy bloy welcome to the show pleasure to be here so we're talking on the day that vice president Harris named him walls as her vice presidential pick in the campaign he served with you in the house he is the first uh former member of the House to be on a ticket since Al Gore on a democratic ticket at least what was he like in the house what can you tell us about him help us get to know him better he was remarkable in the house he came uh winning a republican seat so he was a red to blue uh candidate and he um came as the longest serving non-commissioned officer in the military to ever to serve in the Congress so he was on a a a path of Veterans Affairs and the rest he came as a child who had worked in farming as a child and so that the Rural America was a big uh priority for him and uh so when I hear people talking about what a liberal is I'm like wait a minute this is not the same person he was right down the middle and just as was getting off the elevator I got a message from his classmates are having a zoom event for a fundraiser for him uh which they were happy to invite me to his his house uh classmates his house classmates he's very popular in the house very popular in the house members are so excited about him because he's a a wonderful person just normal lovely wonderful guy but let me just say um he called me right after this shall we say opportunity arose I know how to go after I know how to make this case I know how to differentiate I can get this done I'm I'm putting myself out there and who to th it you know here he is governor of Minnesota and he's putting himself out there and then he comes up with weird which becomes viral and the rest and here he is so I have to give him a lot of credit for not only being a great governor and values-based and Visionary and all that but being quite an Adept politician experience as a governor is very prized presidentially people talk about executive experience people talk about experience in in the Senate you know Joe Biden was partially on the ticket with Obama due to his background in the Senate what do you learn in the house that you don't learn from being a governor or being a senator being a Governor is a different story that's an administrative management experience that is different and we're very proud that we have so many if you read my book you don't see too much shall we say patience with a senator and a senator and a senator and a senator and a senator because what they do they bring their staff their staff their staff and there's such an um Senate Centric attitude to what will Compass the Senate well we're a bandwagon they're a a convoy so I'm glad to see somebody with the house experience uh going into the executive branch you make the argument in the book that members of the House are more retail oriented than members of Senate oh I think that's so what do you mean by that well I mean that they are used we we have to run every two years so we're close and that's as our Founders intended that we would be close to the people uh they have run every six years it's a whole different story you know not that not that we don't value them and what they bring to it and all that but um ours is um shall we say a little more Rough and Tumble a little more impatience to get things done and uh a little more closeness to constituents our bosses we consider them our bosses one of the ways walls has changed the campaign quickly is the injection of the word and the idea of weirdness into it and that ended up flavoring how I read some of your book because you have a very funny chapter actually on Donald Trump that is largely about him being very weird in conversations with you so what have you thought about first the bringing of weirdness as an attack into the campaign and two like how well does it describe your experience of trump and the Republicans who followed him I mean weird is weird but wrong is even different it's a good word I mean it take it's on the path but I think that um dangerous is probably but it's not as always say appealing a word it sounds confrontational but I think they're very dangerous it it strikes me that one reason it's connected in the way it has is it it is deflating I think in many ways Joe Biden often wanted Trump's threat to be the center of the campaign and this feels like an interesting inversion it's about making them smaller pushing them more to the side grabbing hold of normaly not making them into a sort of Unstoppable super villain well to that end one of the things that my understanding is that Trump does not like to be laughed at and this made people laugh at them the weird thing is they're dangerous oh these were weird people laughed and they don't like to be laughed at that's why he had to thing about me because I was making people laugh at him so I was struck so JD Vance uh his initial attack on walls was that walls is a San Francisco style liberal I happened to talk with walls week ago and he told me that he had actually just been to San Francisco for the first time a few weeks ago but but it got me thinking so you're a San Francisco liberal and you were a very very successful Speaker of the House kamla Harris a San Francisco politician uh vice president now the presumptive nominee Gavin Nome a San Francisco politician yeah got himself sort of has become a real National Democrat in a way I wouldn't even have expected a couple of years ago San Francisco actually has a pretty strong record right now of training politician s who become National figures who seem quite Adept in power at throwing a punch or taking a punch and it's like the list could go on right now Rana uh who's outside San Francisco by by a bit but has become an important sort of nationalized figure I think Scott weiner in San Francisco has become a very influential figure La politicians haven't been playing as much at such a national level and you could look at a lot of different cities across the country that don't seem to be generating as many national figures well I could name them a quite a few other people even more prominent than us who came out of s or anybody you named who came out of um uh San Francisco we had Leo McCarthy who was the speaker Willie Brown who was the speaker George mascone who was the president proem but Leo then became uh lieutenant governor but he aspired to be the senator and Dian Feinstein of course but so why is San Francisco trained so many politicians to be so adept at wielding both power and media well it's all about the why why are you even into this it's a place that is an intellectual resource whether we're talking about saving the planet whether you're talking about lgbtq rights whether you're talking about one's right to choose you name any subject and there is a a Bedrock of support for it and again intellectual Resource as well as strategic thinking about how to get things done is highly educated in the whole region a beautiful beautifully diverse in terms of people who are there and um we have every religion or none we have every political thought or whatever and a lot of success but a lot of need a lot of need so it's um again a challenge to conscience the intellectual resource the universities Cal St Stanford University of San Francisco and all of that as a a resource to it so when it comes to the politics it's it's a network of allegiances you know and that and uh it's not easy I mean it's competitive and they're loyalties and they're loyalties and so you have to get through all of that and look at KET kamet she ran against her B in the incumbent I was actually for him because he was for me and his family the henan family was a B major major um Democratic Progressive family when she ran against him she won so she took she had courage now she had courage to go forward and then um when she ran for attorney general it was a very tough race it was a mass primary but she figured out a way so when people talk about her I say you know what she's not only a person of deep Faith which I personally admire and her and and her commitment to Public Service officially she's strong she knows what she cares about and she fights for it most recently we see what the woman's right to choose and other issues and politically she's astute but you don't realize it but when you see she got to be district attorney she got to be attorney general which was tough that was a tough race very close and then she got to be VI president and as soon as there was an opportunity we thought there could be an open opportunity if people wanted to run and they could have but she locked it down right away tell me about how she did that she coess the party very rapidly yeah well I think um here's the thing the thought was that if this were to happen but it happened fast he wein none of us had any idea he would do it that Sunday oh well I didn't have any idea most people didn't uh so when he did that and endorsed her then the thought was everybody wanted an open process let's see the talent let's see the bench of the Democrats and let them compete and see what they can attract but when he endorsed her then it was are you with KL or not and she uh she moved quickly she really moved quickly and again a sign of her adroitness in terms of being politically astute so every step of the way except for her race for president which enabled her to be vice president that wasn't a success per se but it led to it um so it was more the um appetite that people had to win I mean my whole thing in all this is our goal is to make sure that Donald Trump never steps foot in the white house cuz he's beyond weird I want to go into all the adjectives when you make a decision about your goal you have to make every decision in favor of reaching that goal but the most important part of the decision is the candidate and the campaign and it it didn't seem as if there was a campaign in place and it was discouraging to people so that decision about the campaign or per se the person was the critical thing and when that changed and people who had been discouraged were overwhelmingly I mean just overwhelming watching the pent up energy Express itself has been something amazing it's beautiful to behold and my members see the members I call them my members still but the members were so down and then they became so not that they were losing they in our um um thanks Susan delen our our DC chair and the leadership there uh they were um in good shape if Joe Biden lost by Five Points in their District but not if he lost by seven and so they weren't desperate but when this changed it made such a volunteers small donor contributions just a whole different thing now we have to sustain it there was a sort of [Music] remarkable feel for the timing of different things throughout that process um I want read to quote from your book that that caught my eye this is about how you are a speaker um and you say that a speaker quote you must demonstrate a plan and you must act without hesitation the minute you hesitate your options are diminished the longer you wait the more your options are diminished tell me about that principle well the thing is is that if you're the leader you know what I I make before that I think or maybe in the course of that I make the comparison of being a member of Congress you have um you can be deductive study it learn it hearings constituent meeting this or this but sometimes when you're the leader or the speaker or an executive like the president of the United States or a governor you have to act me intuitively and the minute you hesitate you hesitate I'm going to make get my agenda for Red Cups and then the other one's going to get their agenda for that thing and everybody starts acting to protect their interest which reduces your success you have to act nine out of 10 times you'll be right that's not a bad average maybe nine out of 10 times you'll be right I'm not sure we all have that average well you have to know you have to know yourself you know you can't they say trust your gut well what's Your Gut unless you know what you're talking about you know the appetite of your the voters and the this or that that you have listened you don't start listening that day you might take a quick tally to make sure everybody knows the direction you're going in but I completely subscribe to you act you'll Prevail and they know you're going to act so they won't mess with you I mean I should say it in a nicer way than that they know you're going to act they might curb their enthusiasm until another time but when people believe you're going to act it changes their strategy it does they want to negotiate for another day and that's always leverage too they have leverage you have leverage because they may want something another day you did something over the past couple of weeks month that I actually found in a way I don't usually find strategic movements sort of remarkable and inexplicable and I'm not going to ask you about anything you did or didn't do in private I want to be delicate about this but July 8th Joe Biden sent a letter to members of Congress and he said the debate about me running is over I'm running I was voted for by 14 million people in the Democratic primary are you trying to take away their voice we're done with this two days later you went on Morning Joe it's up to the president to Sude if he is going to run uh we're all encouraging him uh to to make that decision uh because time is running short I've been having house Democrats text me all that day before they said it's over it's a fate a comple he's quelled this you walked out and reopened the space for deliberation mhm by saying something that way didn't make logical sense he had made his decision tell me about that language that for like how did that then everybody else picked up your template we waiting for him to make that decision where did that come from well I wanted to see a campaign that could win because I had made a decision that I stayed in Congress to defeat what's his name because I think he is a danger to our country it's not like a a Bob Dole or George Bush or something like that we have a difference of opinion it's patriotism or or autocracy or democracy it's a different thing I actually was on that show because I was bringing spet Lana so that people could hear about bellus that was our main purpose that morning um I didn't accept the letter as anything but a letter I mean I mean and another there are some people who were unhappy with the letter let me say some said that some people were unhappy with the letter I'll put it in somebody else's mou because it was a I don't even know it didn't sound like Joe Biden to me it really didn't so that but people I my main purpose though as was to say stop saying things because he has NATO here if you have something to say save it for later until they're gone because cuz this is a big deal the summit of nature which he has strengthened grown and now is hosting and they're doing great things and his he's the center of it all save your comments for later but the thing that was happening in that moment was it as time was moving forward the space for options was diminishing that's what it felt like to everybody watching this covering it to people inside it and you sort of fli that mhm yeah and reopen the question of deliberation right I mean as you said you you said let's talk about this again after NATO and that it's like you put a wedge in a door that somebody was trying to slam closed and every time you slammed it it just sort of popped back open a little bit I've actually seen you do this a few times I've covered politics uh with you at the center of it for long enough um I remember watching you do this with the Affordable Care Act a number of times after Scott Brown won that senate seat uh Ted Kennedy's senate seat and felt like the bill was collapsing you have a a sort of tendency when a thing is beginning to fall apart to Simply assert that it isn't mhm and to sort of reopen people's imagination about the options you talk about that in terms of intuition but sort of how do you know when something is breaking and how do you know when it can actually be held together in those two cases maybe well I see everything as an opportunity no matter what it is it's an opportunity an opportunity for change an opportunity to grow whatever it is so when we did the Affordable Care Act and they were like uh now you're dead we are not passing up an opportunity of a generation that people have been trying to do presidents have been trying to do for a 100 years so this is after Scott Brown wins in Massachusetts for people who don't remember this Ted Kennedy dies he died Scott Brown wins in Massachusetts and I covered the affordable character act very very closely and it felt to people like it was going to die but the message a lot of Democrats took off of Scott Brown's WI was this is politically lethal and for many It ultimately was um at least at that period and we should abandon it we've gone too far they were getting yelled at in town halls and the feeling was that that you pulled that back from the brink well let me tell you so when um the Senate bill which was real stinkeroo I mean there was no way we were going to vote for it but finally they passed at least they had a vehicle and we had our vehicle and we were going to go to conference and we're all set to go to conference like the next day after the election boom you're dead but the conference that we were engaged in prepared us for what we would put in reconciliation so so I knew we had reconciliation so we didn't need 60 but we needed to have something that our health Democrats would vote for so the consensus that was built in conference prepared us for something that we could do in reconciliation and pass because there was no way yeah but you needed to stiffen your members to pass even that a lot of them wanted to flee oh no they didn't want pass it at all I said I it stinks cuz see what we had to do which was worse because of reconciliation which is weird I me it's very weird it's weird thing is Strang way to legisl to me the president they all kept saying to me just pass the Senate I said I wouldn't even vote for that thing much less bring it up and I my members are not voting for it it's a terrible bill you have missed an opportunity and you don't have things in there that you should but I don't vote for a bill for what it doesn't have but I'm not voting for it if I don't like what it does have but then it came to us and this was horrible horrible but you know you roll they said the parliamentarian says that you cannot pass your bill and the Senate bill and add your amendments until this bill is signed into wall oh my God that man I had to go to the members and say that stinking lousy rotten nothing bill from the Senate we're going to have to vote for it so it gets signed into law then Harry gets these passed we stick it here and then we have a victory you can't make a I you know what I hate the bill I I told the P I have nothing than that it's a missed opportunity but president was on the line Harry Reed was on the line and I was on the line and they voted for the stinking lousy bill that I was never going to bring up that I was never going to vote for but we had to do it and then we have the success that we went out there for Mr Speaker I yield the balance of our time to the gentlewoman for I yield one minute to the gentle woman from California who has led the way in this quest for Health Care reform tirelessly persistently she's brought us to this moment of decision General lady from California the Speaker of the House M thank you my colleagues after a year of debate and hearing the calls of millions of Americans we have come to this historic moment today we have the opportunity to complete the great unfinished business of our society and pass health insurance reform for all Americans that is a right and not a privilege I was sorry we never could get because the Senate wouldn't do it public option would saved us money and so but we couldn't get it but we put Provisions in the bill that compensated for that so it wasn't so bad but it wasn't as good as it could be and um but the reconciliation piece I guess they just didn't think we would do I don't know what they thought but we were not not going to pass the bill and um president always stuck with us I'm not saying all this people did but the president always he was one yeah there were people in the White House who thought it was time to time to cut bait go for go for a mini Bill who are they thinking oh don't run for office yourself I mean this this ain't going to happen okay you got that it's not going to happen before you were in Congress you were the state chair of the California Democratic party I thought I was the queen of the world the biggest party in the country Roots organizing owning the ground with your message developing the candidates oh my God it was heaven but but you're a party person which not everybody is these days one of the most remarkable things to me about watching covering the Democratic party over the past couple of months has been watching it do something collectively in very difficult uncertain circumstances I I was sitting with a republican uh a significant sort of experienced Republican and I was asking why were they so surprised by the switch why was there so little talk Of KLA Harris at the Republican convention and he said we never thought they would do it the Democratic party has held together as an organization an institution in recent years not just in the past couple of months and way Republicans haven't look at the speakers on the Republican side how many of them have been deposed rendered powerless their lives made miserable John Boehner left whisper uh whistling zippah tell me about how you have kept Democrats thinking and acting like a party how you've empowered them to do that and maybe how they've empowered you to sort of act with power in that they gave me well here's the thing I as I say in the book there are two things one is um I see um myself as a weaver at a loom and they have with have all these members and the Beautiful diversity 70% of our caucus are women people of color lgbtq uh that's not the only diversity it's Geographic it's generational it's everything that you can think of it's philosop philosophy and the rest but they all know that why there are Democrats so you have to know your why otherwise what are you what are you doing that they know why they're Democrats and some of the ones that might seem the most um close to the Edge in terms of a vote are the last ones who would become Republicans cuz they know what the Republicans are or aren't and you make everybody know that what I'm weaving here depends on all of you treating each one of you respect every thread makes a MOS um a tapestry that is so beautiful and we you're part of that so if we are not unanimous on something that's okay just as long as we have the consensus to proceed so you may not be part of the unanimity On Any Given or even part of the consensus but respect it because tomorrow is another day and your issue something you're more interested in regionally whatever it is and that tapen should be there for you but that should be true for Republicans right the it should be true for Republicans that the shifting coalition's benefit them over time it should be true for Republicans that they have interests that that weave in and out it should it has it has become less true right the range of motion Kevin MTH if you don't believe in governance that's what holds it together for Democrats and you don't believe in science if science tells us we have to do this to protect the planet and we need these protections they don't want the protections that believe the science or the governance that goes into doing this so you're dealing it's very hard to find leverage with people who don't have really any beliefs or any agenda it's hard to negotiate with somebody who wants nothing we had to leave a week early cuz they couldn't do a rule to bring up the bills their own side their own side couldn't come I say you have to be able to come to the side on some Bill you have no idea and so it's respect it's listening it's building off of the information that people have it's not anything coming from the top pop down it's all Bubble Up from the caucus and there's one word that I attribute to my caucus which is courage they have the courage to go out and make the boat they believe that this is what we need to do and if there's a path that shows that this can become law and and that courage cuz you know the other side's going to go out and paint the thing like it's poo poo and Kaka when we think it's chocolate ice cream you know Bernie Sanders um or or AOC they often argue with where the Democrats end up but they often vote for the bill in the end I mean Sanders was there on the affordable car and every vote people needed he wasn't shutting the government down like Ted Cruz and the Republicans is the thing in your view that broke the Republican party's ability in the government to act as a coherent institution the fact that they just don't believe in or want enough from the government to have reason to continue being connected to the negotiation operational I mean in other words one of the things I love is being a legislator it's hard work I mean I don't I don't say that it's a a complaint I love it I mean I love it it's I love I love it but it's people are working all the time developing issues developing policy whether they start with a bill and or take it through the process take it home listen to constituents at home see what the possibilities are on the other side of the AIS the other side of the capital so it's it's um it's a Triumph when you pass a bill it's a Triumph especially if it's going to be signed into a law but you have to have goals you have to have a a why come back to the why and and um and you have to have respect for other people's views and who's going to take the lead on something you know some people want to always be in the lead but they don't really produce votes you it's like that's interesting okay see you later but um but tomorrow you know maybe that'll be another day but everybody has to know tomorrow is another day you told a story I really liked in the book about getting your members to vote for the defense authorization Bill oh yeah that included the repeal of don't ask don't tell yeah do you mind telling that here and it was hard cuz not all the Democrats well shall we say were as fully and bored as we would have liked them to be but we did get the number of votes for an amendment for Amendment to the defense authorization bill and if don't ask down down coms up I pass a bill oh my God even the chair of the committee the Democratic chair of the committee was against it but we passed it and I said to them um this is pretty exciting today now this is Barney Frank and as you all everybody you can think of who was Lefty everybody all the lefties up you made history today yeah we made history we're appealed don't answer I said no you're going to make it twice why you're going to vote for the first time for a defense authorization Bill don't ask us to do that we will never ever do it I said well you like repal of donel we don't have it unless we pass a bill well what makes you think you know everything what the Republicans always vote for the defense Bill I said I can see it in their eyes I know them I know them they ain't forgive my a ain't voting for The Bill are you witch I might be I can read lips and I can see it their eyes they ain't voting for it nine Republicans voted for the bill nine Republicans that means overwhelmingly voted against now we had some trouble in the Senate so we had to split it up and this that but we got it past thanks to Harry Reed I said see you made history twice in one day don't ever ask me to do that again we'll see we'll see I want to recognize Nancy Pelosi stenny Hoyer and Harry Reid today we're marking a historic Milestone but also the culmination of two of the most productive years in the history of Congress in no small part because of their leadership and so we are very grateful to that I I want to go back for a second to you could see it in their eyes I see it in their eyes you you talk in the book about what makes a good speaker and you say strategic knoow you say a policy background and then you say Above All Else intuition people don't usually admit that a big part of their job talk about women there you go but you're known as somebody who does know if the votes are going to be there m a lot of people don't speakers don't minority don't and you didn't say to me there well we had done a whip count you don't have the Republican whip count in your pocket you're not a republican you also knew that the Liberals would do the thing you were telling them ultimately they need to do you said people say are you a witch but where does that intuition come from for what people are going to do because it does make you good at that job or did make you great at that job it made you important in what's been happening Democratic party in recent weeks there's something deep there how do you explain why you have it and what separates the people like you who have it in Congress from those who don't how do you develop that women's or well there are many who so it's not just me but um the my whole thing with the members is I've they've know I've never wanted anything I didn't want to be pointed to anything I didn't want to run for any other office I love being in the house I love the house as I say in the book you're close to your constituents as nothing more thrilling to me than walk on the floor and say speak for the people of San Francisco no matter what other honors may be bestowed upon me at the time but you just watch and you see you're always observing and learning and respecting and listening to what you think the other side might do and whatever ches you might get from them but I knew they weren't going to vote for this bill I mean they they're they're terrible when it comes to um those kinds of issues I think you're I think you're under selling a little bit I know that you as Speaker nobody thought you wanted to leave that job but there's a I have asked many times over the years about processes you've been at the center of and said well how did she get them to vote for that how did she know where they were going to go how did she you just said people will say to you are you a witch there there's some intuitive process here I always think of intuition as the ability to make quick judgments based on deep kind of knowledge right something is behind that yes something is behind it you were known for being very good at staying in touch with your members yeah at having a sense of what they needed where they really were I thought it was striking in the book very early in the book when you're talking about your work as Speaker you write with a lot of Pride about all of the leadership positions you created I think it's you took it from 8 to 18 something like that 2ir of them are creative but early in a book we end up having long chapters about Donald Trump and the Iraq War you're before a lot of that you're talking about how important it was you created these other positions that let other parts of the caucus have a seat in near leadership there's something you did institutionally organizationally that kept you that kept your finger on the pulse of it how do you think about that how do you know when you know where they all are well I you know I've spent a long time in committee work Appropriations and intelligence even sometime on a more time than anybody else on ethics not that wanted to do that but I I was paying my dues to the caucus uh so I was a dedicated Committee Member I had no interest in running for leadership why would I want to do that when I could be doing Appropriations or intelligence or any of that so you get to know how the system works and who what what lights whose fire and the rest and then of course you listen to them you're just always listening it's how you would learn as you're always listening but um also you you said the word before you have to have a plan this is the plan cuz sometimes people say I'm not voting for that because it ain't go it ain't gone nowhere and you're making me walk the plank and I'm saying well no we have to again this is a bandwagon it's not a convoy that goes as slow as the slowest ship we're we're on we're on the move and we have to show our constituent action you're a real partisan of the house you quote John Dingle the the late great member of the House saying the Republicans are the opposition but the Senate is the enemy if there was no senate or at least if there was no Senate filibuster if if the house was what governed America right if it was the if we were unic Camal one legislative body how'd America be different today well I'm not advocating for that I'm not saying I might advocate for a new country starting I'm I'm not advocating for that but I do think the compromise that our beautiful Visionary Founders had in giving every state two votes 40 million California two senators Idaho two senators they don't even have as many constituents as I have in San Francisco but nonetheless that was the Constitution we take an oath to protect and defend it that was a compromise that created America they couldn't foresee 40 million in one million as the difference between the states but any of that so then they decide that it's going to be 60 votes so what you saying 40% wins 41 40% point point a hair wins this is ridiculous and this is what we have to fight and if they don't I'm going to keep my promise and send them 100 powdered wigs because they're just living in a different era but I mean immigration woman TR to choose raise the minimum wage all these kinds of things 51 votes like that and and people get frustrated why you why can't you do what you said you're going to do well we do it in the house but they don't do it in the Senate well what's that yeah I mean a cynicism Creeps in and and I think understandably so I mean Democrats will run this year on protecting and reinstating through law the protections of row but if they win they're not going to have 60 votes in the Senate which means that even if they do keep the Senate which means that they can't really do it because they have to get rid of the fill Buster the rescue package 51 votes um Ira 51 votes you see even the chipsa because it goes your budget reconciliation yeah BR the chips now here's the chipsa all the Republicans want the chips business Community wants the chips you saw the excitement for the chip saacks right so they were saying to me probably some of the Republicans were saying to me we probably get like 35 Republican votes cuz they don't want Biden to have any success so remember I said anti- science anti-g governance anti whoever the Democratic president is they have a trifect are going they don't have to do anything right and they don't want to do anything so think they were going to give us 35 votes some of the Democrats thought we giving money to Corporate America or something like that so we couldn't count on everybody then the ranking member of the science based and Technology Committee of arth that was the committee of jurisdiction makes a beautiful present ation about the bill and the bipartisanship that helps shape the stem parts of it and the educ W whoa w w 10:00 I'm talking to chck on the phone and I get a thing on my phone it says McCarthy just told him nobody can vote for the bill and whatever his name is the ranking member has to argue against the bill manage against the bill tomorrow which was a sh they should at least let somebody else manage the opposition when this guy had just made this beautiful speech and play so I said to Chuck oh we just lost all the Republican votes where do they go to school I'm calling their University president I said you know it's 10:00 at night I said to I said let me just tell my staff tell the Republicans to go to hell we're going to pass the bill without them okay that was my message I don't usually use foul language but that was ridiculous the Chip's built so I said just tell them we don't need them we don't need them we don't want them so I didn't have the votes at that moment but I figured i' one way or another I had to leverage to get them so we get the votes when we get to 218 something like 24 Republicans came on board but not until we passed it ourselves that's how bad they are they wouldn't even vote for the chips act the buil to make us indep uh self Reliant as a country where all these products that go into everything that we not that cup but my phone yours that we do and then one more I have to tell you this one more because this one just defies everything they don't want Ry way right I respect that I come from Italian Catholic Family but you know they don't they think I'm a little too exuberant on the subject but that's their problem I've had five children in six years and seven days I know I'm talking about here so the um I'm not complaining it's beautiful for me but why should I say that's what other people should do so we bring a bill to the floor Kathy Manning of North Carolina I'm congresswoman Kathy Manning I am proud to represent North Carolina's sixth congressional district my bill establishes a federal statutory right for individuals to access and use contraceptives and for healthc Care Professionals to provide them Congress must immediately pass this bill to ensure people can access their birth control without government interference we are not willing to play defense on this critically important issue we are playing offense women have a right to contraception women have a right to contraception M said to me you're letting them off the hook they're going to look good voting for this they for cont eight Republicans voted for it 195 voted against it some of them women women is that is that our country is that freedom is the public know how dangerous they are you read a book about the art of power Trump a book years ago one of the the foundations of his public reputation the art of the deal still he runs saying look I'm a good deal maker all these other politicians these career politicians they didn't know how to make a good deal America's always getting ripped off these Republicans can't make a good deal in Congress like you need me you've watched Donald Trump working on deals you have made deals with him youve watched deals fall apart with him what would you tell the American people about what Trump does and doesn't know about how to make a deal well if you're going to make a deal you have to be true to your word you have to be honest Hest and he doesn't have an honest thread in his body I'll tell you but you hear him now smoing with um what's his name musk mhm when we did our last bill he's going out as president we're finishing in the lame duck the bill to keep government open and the rest of it if you put $1 in the bill for electric cars I will veto the bill $ we had Mary Bara we had everybody calling him and saying what is this you're tying the hands of American Prosperity this is an industry this isn't an company nothing we couldn't do anything on electric cars cuz he was so in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry so in the pocket of it he would shut down government and we couldn't let that happen you know we couldn't let that get rid of the creep so that I what kind of a deal that is that's not a deal that's not if you do this I'll do that it's I'm not I ain't doing nothing some of the other negotiations we had on um he would not face reality like this is one that I I means a lot to me because it's feeding the children we wanted to have money for the Children's Program school programs during the summer when they were not in school and they still had to eat cuz that's where they got their food is when they went to school but there was no money there was no money there was just no money so uh he said it was a c we came like around now as a CR A continuing resolution yeah has to be absolutely clean you can't have anything in it I'm talking to like Steph curan his wife all these advocates for feeding the children so sorry can't do anything has to be clean so he comes up with I need $30 billion to pay the farmers he had ripped off the farmers with his China deal cuz they couldn't buy the products and all that stuff the Chinese couldn't buy thect so he was going to give them money to make up for his China stuff so clean CR just for people who don't know just continues funding the government at more or less current levels he says nothing can be in it and now he wants $30 billion add billion and he said oh this just still clean with that in it that's not clean no what that's why I say in the book either he's stupid or he thinks we're stupid it ain't clean Mister now you're not getting it well then I'm not you're not getting it do you understand you are not getting it I have to have it okay so I need $8 billion for the children's school program oh it can't do that that's not clean I it's as clean as yours so we got the8 billion but he was trying to pass off $30 billion to cover his stupid whatever you want to call it on the China thing so he he's he um he's like he's the categorical imperative whatever he says that's what it is that's what is that's not a way to make a deal what's that another bill they came to me and said absolutely no you can't have any money for Global anything Global Health you can't have anything no no Global nothing beyond the regular appropriation nothing I've told Elton John um Bano Bill Gates everybody you can think of we ain't got no money for any vaccines or anything else cuz the President says no oh they said we forgot we promised Sudan $700 million to be part of the Abraham a courts promise them $700 million and then they were going to not be at Ro ation which you know is ridiculous but nonetheless this is Manu I have to have it I promise I have to have the money I have to have $4 billion for the vaccine program so we got a 700 we got our 4 billion for the vaccine program so that was okay to change the rules for them but they didn't know we were not going to do that unless there was something in it for our values I guess you could hear this and say well maybe what Trump does is he comes up with a very harsh starting offer and then in the end in these different stories he got the thing he wanted he got the money for the farmers he got the money for Sudan is he actually in a way a strong dealmaker or is your argument here that he could have gotten more of what he wanted if he was Tre no it he just didn't want us to get anything he was not a person of any values see when you're doing the budget see I'm an appropriator that's in my DNA very my father was on the Appropriations Committee when he was in Cong so I I love it I love every aspect and when they make presentations in the rooms I listen to every single word they're like come on it's time to go everybody else is leaving I'm listening he was like disgusting you know what was holding up money for women for food for women infin and children they don't want to spend that much money because you know it was going to add to the national debt after they gave $2 trillion to the richest people in America they couldn't feed poor women and infinite children so no values no uh anything so I don't think that he was clever in any of any of it he didn't think ahead he didn't think ahead or he could have had something better but to throw his considerable weight around oh I saw one the other day it said him and he's saying K is trying to find her color as they're spraying him with orange what do you think happens if Donald Trump wins a second term the race is very close it's very close in Battleground States it's possible you've seen them before you also have a sense of the kinds of Republicans who are now in Congress which is different Trump was dealing with a Republican party that was not fully bought into him in Congress in 2017 it's a very different Republican party now what is possible what would you predict would be true if him and the Republicans win in 2024 that wasn't true then I can't Envision it I cannot Envision it first time people thought well maybe he'll respect the institution or the presidency little did we know he didn't but we thought he might so okay let's give him the benefit doubt we all want our president to succeed whoever he may be but then we saw how vile how disgusting how crooked how everything he was so now we have to make sure he doesn't win and anybody said well I didn't like Hillary because of this or I didn't like you know what KL is the person he's the other one that's the choice we have to make sure he doesn't win I can't even Envision a situation where he would win if he were to win and we didn't win the house imagine how horrible it would be imagine how horrible it would be I can hardly sleep at night as it is but that would be unsleep Unthinkable impossible for our country we just have to do it all own the ground own the ground it's all over I'm going to Michigan next week I might know more after I come back from there cuz until you're on the ground in each of the States you really and I've been Arizona I've been almost every place but I haven't been to Michigan I'll see what that what that is meantime Joe Biden just a remarkable president of the United States we have to make sure his Legion his um Legacy which is our Legacy we passed that a lot of my members had to take tough votes for it so we want it to be recognized but more importantly want people to Avail themselves of the goodness of it all and um that's that then always our final question what are three books that have influenced you you'd recomend to the me oh I don't know if that influen me um the Bible of course now books I like normally used to say that's interesting what's next so what book led me to what's next was one was um one of the few Umberto Echo books that I could read with great ease called the island of the day before the island of the day before is about the age of wonder which I love the age of wonder when all these countries were competing the in the world you could measure measure latitude by the stars but longitude you had to have something else so it's about that and then that took me down the path of studying longitude and how where the first clock came that could be on a boat and all that so that open doors what's next another one is um I read over and over again some multitime some just once of Gabrielle Garcia marquez's books um the one I like like the best is Love in the Time of kalera it's all about the culture and the almost witchcraft of the region but I've read all this as books there's one um I'm all of a sudden blanking on the author age of Wonder have you ever read that oh God it's the best book it talks about and I I I used to give it to everybody I'll send it to you it talks about um in in the that era when Darwin went he he really couldn't come home and publish for a long time because religious the religious community couldn't accept that so it was a couple of decades at least before he could so it's about that but it talked about the first use of the word scientist which was um not used until like the 1820s or something like that because religion and science it had to find its path not necessarily together for for a while so those are three I love what influenced me um I don't know I have insatiable appetite for any books about our country and our Founders and Lincoln you know everything I'll just close by telling you this I'm from Baltimore you know originally a national anthem was written there so you know when you go to the game and you come to the end end of the very Home of the Brave and everybody cheers well I cheer before that I cheer when it says bombs bursting and all that proof through the night that our flag was still there and our flag was still that's where we are now we're in the night and we have to prove through this night that our flag is still there Nancy py thank you so much wonderful to see you thank you [Music]