>> Recently, Ted Cruz bragged about the fact that he was working with Representative Ocasio-Cortez
on the issue of politicians who later become lobbyists.
So he says that they want to pass regulations that would essentially restrict that from
happening in the future.
But AOC didn't really speak too much about it until now.
In an interview with our very own Emma Vigeland, she answered questions about it.
Here's what she had to say.
>> Our legislative teams are meeting so we're gonna see how far we can push this.
This whole conversation started by finding out that the vast majority of members that
left their seats last year have gone on to lobbying.
But what we found is that out of all of those members only two are actual registered lobbyists.
So the real question here that we're trying to kind of figure out in this collaboration
is how far he's willing to go.
Is this just about the letter of the law, or is he serious about really banning lobbying
in spirit?
>> Okay, thoughts?
>> Yeah, I mean, I don't believe Ted Cruz cares about this issue at all.
I mean, the issue of lobbyists is obviously very unpopular, whether you're a Republican
voter or a Democratic voter.
Nobody likes the idea of lobbyists going to Washington and influencing their politicians.
So Ted Cruz is definitely grandstanding here.
He doesn't actually wanna fix the issue.
That little caveat of that only two of them registered as lobbyists is the key cuz what
they do is they peddle their influence in other ways.
For example, our good friend of the show, Rahm Emanuel, just took a job on Wall Street
this week.
>> Yeah, by the way, not a good friend.
>> Yeah, exactly.
>> No?
He doesn't watch all the time?
>> I don't know if he watches but we're not very friendly to him.
Definitely not a friend of the show.
But I do want to go to the next clip.
She elaborates a little more on this possible relationship on doing something about politicians
lobbying, take a look.
>> It's super bizarre, really weird, never thought in my life that one of my first pushes
would be alongside Ted Cruz.
>> Right.
>> But I think it really shows what the true spirit of not being partisan is.
And that bipartisanship doesn't mean lets come together to go to war and lower taxes
on the rich, but bipartisanship means, okay, I will swallow all of my distaste in this
situation because we have found a common interest.
>> I love the distinction she made there because bipartisanship isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Usually when I hear bipartisanship from some Democrats it's a huge red flag.
It usually indicates there's some pretty terrible legislation coming.
>> Right?
But when it comes to a specific issue like this, when it comes to corruption in our political
system, bipartisanship does make sense.
Because as you mentioned, Nando, when it comes to voters, when it comes to the electorate,
there is frustration and anger on both sides, and they want real action.
So I'm willing to support this kind of bipartisanship.
But in any other issue, whether its fixing our healthcare system or tax cuts, anything
that involves the welfare reform issue, I don't want bipartisanship.
Because you know where Republicans stand and you know that they are unwilling to concede
or bend at all.
>> Right, right, or trying to slip in some sort of amendment within the legislation.
>> Exactly.
>> I love that she's being really transparent about the process with her constituency and
with viewers and saying, you know what?
We're talking to him.
We're talking to his team.
We're vetting him out to see if there is a genuine interest in being involved in anti-lobbyist
bills or some sort of movement in Congress and in Senate to really attack this issue.
And I think it's prime right now because we see people like Manafort and Roger Stone who
were part of this carousel of people entering the government, working on the outside to
influence other campaigns and do PR work, and even also work in other countries.
And that's where they get kind of in trouble.
>> Some legal trouble.
Yeah, some legal trouble, Manafort and Ukraine and whatnot.
But I think that if they can tie it into an overall narrative of concern that Cruz could
be concerned of those sort of example too then I would find that they are both genuinely
working together.
But, again, Cruz is a really hard one for me.
He's just very, he's a little weaselly.
>> He's super weaselly.
>> And I think he sees the name power behind someone like AOC and he knows that he's unpopular.
He knows he just barely won the election.
>> That's what I was just gonna ask.
Do you think that because he just barely won that he's looking for strategies to make himself
a little bit more popular?
>> Absolutely.
>> Okay.
>> 100%.
>> Well, he's been out of the news for a while and this is a good way to just, AOC is a great
way to get back in the headlines.
>> Well, yeah, and Beto's in the news because he's running.
So who knows if, if Beto doesn't win and then he runs again for the same Senate position
that Cruz is gonna lose it.
>> Right, exactly, and, by the way, I mean, this corruption is not a new issue.
This has been around and all of a sudden Cruz cares about it?
All of a sudden Cruz actually wants to focus on legislation to do something about it?
I don't trust him.
I'm just being clear on that.
But with that said, I do trust AOC and I do trust that she you know is going to work with
him with with one goal in mind.
And if he tries to exploit her for personal gain and isn't genuine about this legislation,
I think she's smart enough to get herself out of it and not develop any type of relationship
here.
>> This was an issue that in the early 2000s there were a significant chunk of Republicans
that were sincere, kind of anti-corruption Republicans.
There was the McCain Feingold Bill, I think it was 2004, was a pretty genuine attempt
to get money out of politics and had some Republican backing.
But ever since then, ever since Citizens United, ever since Mitch McConnell has become the
head of the Republican party in the Senate there is so much money sloshing around.
So much dark money slashing around from the Koch brothers and from gulf states and things
like that, that, I mean, as soon as like any Republican kinda tries to speak up about this
I'm sure that they're putting the squeeze on behind the scenes in a big way.