-I want to talk about what's going on in politics right now.
You know, we see the current president is using
a lot of the levers of power that are available to him
in taking steps, hopefully in something
as big as infrastructure.
He's getting checks in the American people's pocket.
We obviously have a great many people in this country
in elected office who speak ill of big government.
Would you make the case, based on the time
we're living in right now,
that sometimes big government is a helpful tool?
-Sometimes it's helpful.
It's always gonna be helpful if it's properly directed.
But in a time like this, it's essential.
Look, don't forget, I gave you the first balanced budget
in three decades, and we did three in a row,
and I left a fourth, and we paid $600 billion down
on the national debt, which was real money back then.
This is not that kind of time.
We had a crash in 2008,
which blew a $3 trillion hole in the economy.
Then we have the coronavirus crash, which was bigger.
For all of the stimulus money that's been spent,
we're still about 3 million jobs short
of where we were before this thing started.
When there is negative growth and zero interest rates,
only the government can provide the impetus
to jump-start the economy.
And since we're doing it, the President has a plan
to try to shape the future with modernized infrastructure,
including broadband for all these small towns
in rural areas.
And a lot of transfer to clean energy.
But things that are generating jobs.
And a big plan to help small businesses.
And if we hadn't done that, God only knows how many
million people would have been thrown out of their apartments.
Too many lost their jobs as it was.
So, yeah, I think they --
You know, people need to just park this cussin' the government
for a while, and let's get the thing
back to ground zero and start growing again.
Then we can argue about how much the government should do.
-And it does seem to be the discussion du jour
in American politics is, what would you do
about the filibuster if it was up to you?
-Well...
the filibuster was set up to ensure prolonged debate.
It was used in the Civil Rights era
to try to kill civil rights bills.
And starting in about 1993, or '4,
it started to be used all the time.
And it was used on President Obama.
So it's now been used to try to prevent a repeat of 2020
when we had the enormous voter participation.
So all the states that are in the hands of people
who don't like that and want to maintain
a racial income differential
are trying to make it harder to vote.
I would -- I understand the President's reluctant
to get rid of it altogether, and I sympathize
with Joe Manchin, who's trying to, you know,
stand up for the right thing and represent people
that voted more than 2-1 for President Trump,
but I think, when it comes to preserving democracy,
you know, I would suspend the filibuster,
because I think it's essential.
I don't think that we should be in the business
of going backwards in trying to drive down voting rights.
I think we need to expand it.
And I think that every time we've done it before,
it's made us a better country, made us a stronger country.
And it'll do both parties good to have to get out and compete
for all these new voters.
So, yes, if it were me, for this one purpose,
I would not allow an expansion,
and basically the protection of voting rights.
These guys are trying to take us back decades in voting access,
the people that Senator McConnell represents.
-James, you've had in your books the president's gone missing,
the president's daughter's gone missing.
I sense a theme. You know, if there's gonna be
a trilogy of books from you guys, what do you think?
-People really like animals, so, you know.
[ Laughter ]
-It does feel like... -Puppies. Puppies.
-Puppies. The president. Maybe it's a whole litter.
The president's dog has a litter, and they all go missing.
-Yeah, yeah, you never know.
-The president's family wants him to go missing.
[ Laughter ] Will he do that?
-We're in talks. We're in talks.
-You're in talks. When do you know --
Last question -- when do you know the book is done?
Like, when you guys are working on it,
is it your job to say, as the expert, like,
"This is it. We've got it. Send it off"?
-Once again, it's just never come up,
but the other thing that the President does is,
he really insists that the characters are as deep
as we can make them, as complex, rounded characters.
And that's probably the last thing that we do, in terms of,
"All right, this villain is a cliché
rather than a real human being."
And that's probably the last thing we do.
And at a certain point, I just go, "I give up.
It's over. It's done. It's done."
And then there it is -- "The President's Daughter."
-Well, congratulations. -Thanks.
-I do think both of you -- not just one of you --
both of you are going places. [ Laughter ]
"The President's Daughter" is out now.