And Speaker Pelosi, which
I'm told I can still call you,
which feels more natural, if tha
Speaker Pelosi,
there's there's something else
I want to get your response to.
And again,
it is a minority of the Republic
that we're talking about,
not a majority of them.
But there was heckling
like I've never really heard
at a State of the Union address.
Let's play some of that.
Instead of making the wealthy pa
their fair share.
Some Republicans,
some Republicans
want Medicare and Social Securit
I'm not saying it's a majority
Let me give you.
Anybody who doubts it, contact m
I'll give you a copy
I'll give you a copy of the prop
That means Congress doesn't vote
Well, I'm glad you see.
And I tell you, I enjoy conversi
Now, we should just
point out,
as a matter of fact,
that Republican Senator Rick
Scott of Florida has proposed
sunsetting all federal programs,
which presumably would include
Social Security and Medicare.
What did you think of the heckli
I think that they were protestin
too, much.
They knew that they have been id
as putting Medicare and Social S
on the table.
And they were trying to dismiss
But the fact is, it still is par
they are.
They never really supported it
to begin with.
But rather than go into that,
as we go forward,
as the president has said,
how do you intend to lift the de
ceiling, reduce the national deb
What tell us what your programs.
And up until now,
they have been talking about it
and their leader of their Senate
campaign committee.
As you mentioned, Senator Scott
had that as the priority
of what they would do.
So this was sort of show biz.
Mm hmm.
It didn't bother
you, though, that the lack of de
No.
Well,
actually, they were, for them,
fairly well-behaved
from what we see
every day of the week in the and
in the House of Representatives.
Unfortunately,
the flip side of that,
and we were talking about this
before you came on,
was that
the president interacted
and reacted to that in a way tha
you know, maybe
show people what he was made of.
What did you think of that?
Well, first of all,
let me just say thank you
for the opportunity
to say how great I think
the president was tonight.
I mean, what do we want in a pre
We want judgment.
We want values.
We want knowledge.
And therefore,
judgment springing from that.
And we want a connection
to the American people.
You want a hopeful message.
And that's what he gave us.
He proved by what we have done.
But recognizing
there's much more to be done.
So his interaction, I think, was
of his comfort level of all that
I just said.
He did talk about
his desire to work with Republic
who are now in control of the ch
Given your experience
with dealing with or not dealing
with people across the aisle,
how realistic is that right now?
Oh, I hope I'm
hopeful that that is possible.
But all of it
depends on the American people.
President Lincoln, you've heard
he said public sentiment
is everything with it.
You can accomplish
almost anything without it,
practically nothing.
So the message has to go
to the American people.
This is what the choices are.
Chaos or stability.
And they have demonstrated how c
they can be
from the first day of their elec
a speaker to their behavior on t
On the other hand,
there are some in a
for in the infrastructure bill.
We had 13 Republicans
who voted with this, making it b
with the chips and science bill.
We had 24 Republicans.
But nonetheless,
bipartisanship still counting vo
it was interesting to
me because on the on the chips i
they wouldn't vote with us until
we were going to win it on our o
And then they saw that that was
And so they came on board.
But, you know, we always have to
we know that some of them know w
they were for the bill
the day before
the chips and science
and then the day of they
managed the opposition to it.
But we knew that many of them be
in making these chips in America
And many and many Republicans
we know went home to their distr
and touted the bill
even if they voted against it.
I did want to ask
the president said about infrast
and Chip.
I'll see you at the groundbreaki
I do want to go back a little bi
to what Dana was saying,
because this context here of the
is a president who may run for r
pretty soon.
And I mean, you probably heard b
a recent poll
found about
30% of only about 30% of Democra
he should run again.
It seems like a lot of Democrats
they're happy with Joe Biden.
They think he's done a great job
but they're wondering
if he should step to the side
You have made that choice on you
ushering in a new generation
of Democrats into the House.
What do you say to that criticis
And do you think that he did
anything tonight
to quiet
some of the restiveness
among Democrats about
should Joe Biden
be the person leading the party
into the future?
Well,
last weekend
I was at the Democratic
National Committee
meeting in Philadelphia,
and I know that there were some
who would say
perhaps we should consider someb
but even in the 30% poll that yo
like 90% of Democrats
would be for Joe Biden if he run
what they would what they might
And in this earlier stages of a
and what they have decided
they would do,
actually two different things
They are for Joe Biden.
Joe Biden is a person of gut vis
knowledge, judgment and strategi
thinking to get the job done.
He was a remarkable two years,
a remarkable two years,
and again,
connects
very empathetically
with the American people.
So I hope he runs on form that h
And I know that the Democrats
will fully embrace him if he run
It's over
That is facing any primary
challengers, too.
I don't think so.
Dana was talking to AOC earlier
and she said something, Dana.
Correct me
if I'm wrong
as to the effect
of she appreciates the primary p
I mean, do you think that there
Do you think there will be any D
who jump in
to try to challenge Joe Biden
on this generational argument?
No, I don't.
I think that
you have to weigh all of the equ
Yes.
The age issue is something
that we all have to contend with
in every line of work.
But I do think that
the fact is weighing the equitie
this is a president.
12 million jobs,
all of the things that he has do
He has a record unmatched
by any recent president.
I mean, maybe maybe Franklin Roo
who wasn't recent, but Franklin
had 319 Democrats.
We had 220
got done of that record of achie
So he knows how to lead.
He knows he has a big vision,
a shared vision with America.
He is a unifier.
He really is.
It doesn't go looking for differ
He goes to look for hopeful unit
And he talked about for unifying
When he talked about
he talked about the cancer moons
He talked about veterans.
He talked about the
issues that relate to send
fentanyl, fentanyl, but also
mental health issues
that sort of relate to that,
where we've made some progress
in a unified way.
So he's always hopeful about tha
So I think progress he made prog
He gave us hope.
He made it clear
we have much more to get done.
We didn't finish our job,
but we really went down
that path in a way
that demonstrated
that he's a president
with great judgment.
Sometimes that judgment comes wi
I remember when Jerry Brown
was running for governor for off
when he was young, he said
it's time for change.
Then when he ran for governor
the second time,
there's no substitute for experi
Experience counts for a lot.
I think tonight
he showed the energy, the empath
the hopefulness
that a presidential candidate wo
I think it was a triumph for him
For the country
and certainly for the Democrats.
People were so excited
about his presentation tonight.