I'm Jim DeFede.
And this week, I spoke to Broward county commissioner,
Jared Moskowitz
who is running for Congress to replace Ted Deutch.
Moscowitz's democratic primary opponents have
been attacking Moscowitz because he served as a director
of emergency management in the DeSantis administration.
Now, we talk about that later in our interview
but we began with the economy
and I asked him if Democrats have been late to
acknowledge voter's concerns over inflation.
>>Yes, I think we were late.
And that's okay.
We can acknowledge when we make a mistake
but it was really a communications mistake,
which listen,
if you talk to a lot of Democrats out there
they'll think we need to do better collectively
at communicating.
But yes, we talk.
We started talking about it too late.
Listen, people understand that it's a complicated issue.
Ukraine, COVID, the world shutting down,
China, Saudi Arabia,
but they want you to understand
that they're struggling.
They want to hear you understand
that when gas is $5 and rent's up 40%
and they can't find the items that they need
or eggs and chicken and milk are all more expensive.
They want you,
they wanna hear from their leaders that
and acknowledge that it's happening.
And then they wanna hear what you're doing to try to fix it.
Even if those things aren't instant.
And we just didn't, we wanted to because we're in power.
It's not our fault that it's happening.
Democrats didn't cause this,
but because we're in power
there, you know, we didn't want to talk about it
but we don't bear responsibility for what's happening
but we do bear a responsibility to try to
talk about it and fix it.
>>All right.
So let's put who's responsible aside for a second
and let's talk about what we can do
what you think Congress should be doing to fix the problem
what you think the president should be doing to
fix the problem.
Give me your idea of some suggestions, some actual tangent
you know, some specific suggestions that could fix this.
>>Yeah. So listen, there are a couple things.
First, let's talk about the housing issue.
I think we should bring back the rental assistance program.
I think the rental assistance program was
tremendously successful.
I think it kept a lot of people in their homes.
In this area of Broward county in Florida,
rent is up 35 to 40%.
A lot of those people don't have money
in their savings accounts or 401k just to go, you know
find six or $700 a month.
But if we keep them in their homes
it's probably gonna be less expensive than
if they leave and wind up in another government program.
So I think we gotta do that.
I also think we gotta do what the president has been doing
which is use every button
every lever of power to try to bring gas prices down
including going to Saudi Arabia.
I supported that trip.
You know, you do what you have to do.
The world has a lot of strange bedfellows.
And so I supported him going
to Saudi Arabia and trying to get OPEC to pump more.
I think that was good.
I also think where you can,
where it's environmentally friendly,
not drilling off the coast of Florida,
but where you can,
where we can do it in a environmentally friendly way,
I do think looking at land leases
for the expiration of additional fossil fuels,
again, where it's environmentally friendly, we can do it.
There are tactics that they can use
like horizontal drilling and things of that nature
but not in an area that we're gonna disturb wildlife.
>>Well, let me hold you there.
Let me hold you there,
because you raised three issues
and I want to go back through them a little bit.
Because, you talk about let's start with the first one,
you said the rental assistance program.
What you're talking about is, again, another major infusion
of government tax dollars going into the public.
I don't know if you've been watching
what's happening in Washington
but there seems to be no appetite to do more spending
at this time.
And there are those who believe
that it was all the spending we did
which led directly to the inflation we're now seeing.
>>Well, listen, I do subscribe to the theory
that when you pump 6 trillion dollars into an economy
very quickly,
that can add to inflation.
So remember, Trump did a COVID package
that was about three and a half trillion dollars
and Biden did one.
So, you know, both parties infused money into the economy
cause there was a thought process
that we gotta make sure we don't go into a depression.
And so that was what the talk was.
And so both parties subscribe to that nature.
So now that the Republicans wanna try to blame Joe Biden
it's just, it's just not, it's hypocritical.
Now.
So here's what I do think we should be doing.
We're not pumping money into the economy
that would add to an inflationary period.
Housing is already inflated.
You got supply and demand issues.
And so what we would be doing is that money
wouldn't go into the economy except for going
into the housing issue by keeping people in their homes,
you'd be having to take government money
from another program anyway.
If these people wind up having to lose their apartment
and wind up in a homeless shelter
or wind up somewhere else.
So it's a government problem no matter what we do.
So we're gonna be spending money regardless
saying we don't wanna spend new money.
It's not being genuine.
It's disingenuous to say that,
"it won't cost us any money
if we just leave the situation alone."
>>Well, let me jump in again and let's move through.
Cause I want to go through the things you said
you mentioned you supported the president's trip
to Saudi Arabia.
You talked about how there comes a time when
you have strange bedfellows,
should the United States make a strange bedfellow
of Venezuela?
Should we be working with Maduro now
to bring in Venezuelan oil?
>>No, I mean, look, you don't have to work with everybody.
Okay? And so no,
we shouldn't swap one dictator in Russia
for another one in Venezuela.
I know the Biden administration was looking at that.
I publicly opposed it when they were.
And so I'm glad that they haven't pursued that any further
because you know, that's just gonna cause more problems
down the line.
And so, no, I don't,
I don't support switching out Russia for Venezuela
but I do support the president going
to Saudi Arabia and trying to get more money
more gas, or oil, out of OPEC.
But one of the other reasons, Jim,
that I do think we gotta look from
in an environmental way
is we do have to become more energy independent
in this country.
Administration after administration after administration
has been talking about it.
We gotta do it with obviously green technology
you know, solar, wind.
But we also have to recognize that that alone
can't power the country.
And so I do support in areas that we will not
disturb the environment and use technology to do so
you know, exploring more, you know, fossil fuels.
>>What about the Keystone pipeline?
Republicans have tried to make it seem as if
the president's decision to terminate the
Keystone pipeline is one of the reasons why.
>>It's not, you know, Ukraine,
it's not the Russian sanctions.
It's not that with the world shut down for two years
and that China continues to open and close.
No, it's none of that.
It's the Keystone pipeline.
Voters are smarter than that.
You know, that's a red herring.
>>News this week that president Biden has COVID.
The White House says that his symptoms are mild.
They're not,
they don't seem overly concerned
but it will once again raise questions about
whether or not the,
currently the oldest living president in US history
should run for a second term in two years.
I realize you've gotta worry about your election first
but where do you come down?
Do you believe that Joe Biden should run again in 2024?
>>Well, first of all, obviously we, you know
wish the president well,
I heard he's on Paxlovid.
It's good that we have new therapeutics,
you know, so that you can take these things,
the president's vaccinated.
So the president should be fine between being vaccinated
and taking the antiviral Paxlovid.
I do think the president should run again,
obviously that's the president's decision.
He doesn't have to make that decision
at this moment in time,
but let me remind people that there are
two key factors on why I come to that conclusion.
One, he's the only person to beat Donald Trump.
And two, if you look at all polling,
he is still beating Donald Trump.
Even with Joe Biden's approval ratings being very low
he is still beating Donald Trump in a head-to-head.
And with Donald Trump on the precipice
of announcing potentially running for president,
I think, you know the idea of making sure Donald Trump,
one of the greatest,
in my opinion, domestic terrorist threats
that we face is him becoming president again.
That's why I think Joe Biden needs to
run for president again.
>>And if Donald Trump doesn't run, should Joe Biden,
are you saying that if Donald Trump does not run
then someone other than Joe Biden should run?
>>Gotta look at the data.
I mean, at this point in the country,
Democrats are looking at that stuff.
I mean, they really are.
>>Well, let's look at some of the data.
I mean the New York Times poll that recently came out
said that I think it was
it was upwards of 90% of democratic primary voters
under the age of 30
did not want Joe Biden running again.
The numbers are like in the 60s
in general for democratic primary voters.
There is a real generational problem that the
Democratic Party seems to have
in terms of so many of its leaders,
whether it's Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi,
the number two, Steny Hoyer.
I mean, you're talking about
almost a quarter century between those three people.
>>Yeah. I didn't realize Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump
were in their forties.
I mean, come on, both parties have this issue.
>>Let's turn to the campaign right now.
You're often criticized for not being more outspoken
against Ron DeSantis,
that you somehow feel beholden to him
to not speak out as directly as you could
or should in challenging him on some of the issues.
Tell me how you, what you make of this.
>>Well, listen, you know, I'm running for Congress
and I'm telling people why I should go to Congress.
What's weird is none of my opponents are telling them
telling the voters why they should go to Congress
and why they're qualified and what they wanna do.
All they're interested in doing
is telling them why Jared Moskowitz shouldn't go.
It's just bizarre.
Listen, I don't hide from the fact
that I took the appointment from governor Ron to say this,
I didn't support him.
I didn't vote for him.
And in the beginning I told him, no, I didn't want the job.
But you know, I talked to the Parkland families
who visit their kids in the cemetery.
And I realized, you know, this is a nonpartisan agency
and I should go and I should do the job.
And I handed out 85 million masks.
I tested tens of millions of people.
And I, you know, prioritized seniors with the vaccines
and made sure that we can get into the minority community.
This idea that I'm not critical of the governor
is just not accurate and it's not accurate
not just of the governor, but of Republican policies.
By the way, my competitors weren't critical
of the governor until they got in the race.
Because all of a sudden they just found politics
but I've been very critical about what happened
last session.
First of all, when I was there
I fought the governor on masks.
I publicly changed my name to Jared "Mask"owitz.
It got national news.
I mandated masks in my building.
We were the only agency in his administration to do so.
I mandated testing in my building.
We were the only agency in his administration to do so.
And when it came time to, when I left,
and it came time to, the session that just took place
with "don't say gay" and the "stop woke act".
And you know, the book nonsense
and targeting the trans community.
I've been outspoken on all of those policies
but Democrats miss the point here.
While, yes, Ron DeSantis is the governor.
The entire Republican Party of Florida
is supporting this stuff.
They're voting on it before it gets to his desk.
So I've been challenging Republicans publicly.
I've been a Democrat my whole life.
I've never voted for a Republican.
I'm endorsed by Hillary Clinton.
I've worked in Al Gore's office when I was in college.
I mean, you know, these attacks on me
are just political nonsense.
It's what people actually don't like about politics.
You know, I served the state, I've served our residents
and whether Ron DeSantis runs for reelection
or Ron DeSantis runs for president, I will, of course
oppose the governor and support Democrats.