00:00Congressman, last year, more than 6 million voters in California actually voted for Donald Trump.
00:06He won nearly 40% of the vote in your state.
00:09But if you have your way, your party has your way,
00:11there will just be four of the 52 seats in the U.S. House delegation occupied by a Republican.
00:18So I'm wondering, are you concerned at all that those 6 million voters could be disenfranchised in your state?
00:24We are going to put whatever map is agreed to on the ballot.
00:30California voters will make that decision, not our delegation and not the legislature.
00:36But going back to my first comment, we did not initiate this.
00:43Trump and the Republicans are not only targeting Texas,
00:47they're now talking about Ohio, perhaps Indiana, Florida, to try and rig this election.
00:55And we're not just going to sit back and do nothing in response to that.
00:58And I understand your argument that you are responding to Texas.
01:01But look, if both parties go down this road and gerrymandered district after district and state after state,
01:08as it seems that's where we're headed,
01:10it's general election voters and it's independent voters, Congresswoman,
01:14who could actually lose out here because the politicians are choosing their voters
01:19and which voters should participate in those elections.
01:22I'm wondering, are you concerned?
01:23Isn't that dangerous for democracy?
01:26We are for independent commissions.
01:28In fact, I'm the author of the bill in the House of Representatives
01:32to require independent commissions in every state.
01:36When Democrats were in the majority,
01:38we actually included independent redistricting in our big reform measure, H.R.1.
01:42Not a single Republican voted for that.
01:46So, you know, Democrats are for that.
01:48But it's the Republicans that initiated this.
01:52If they stop, we'd be happy to stop and go to independent commissions in every state.
01:57And you mentioned that.
01:58So essentially, you're going against what you believe, are you not?
02:01And pushing this plan in California?
02:04You've been a champion on the independent commission issue.
02:05What I believe is that we should not be a punching bag for Donald Trump.
02:09The state of California is losing big because of Trump policies.
02:14He has refused to provide the disaster relief that every state gets.
02:18He's cut millions of Californians away from their health insurance.
02:22He took nutrition programs away from schools.
02:25He just reduced funding for science projects in every university in the state of California.
02:31So we're going to stand up for Californians.
02:32Californians, he needs a break.
02:36And that break will be Democrats controlling the House of Representatives after next year's election.
02:42And Congresswoman, I wonder, there are a lot of red states that haven't imposed the same kind of limits on gerrymandering that many blue states have.
02:49But now, as we're in this arms race of sorts, do you think it was a mistake for Democrats to enact some of those restrictions and essentially unilaterally disarm?
02:58Well, we were happy with independent commissions.
03:04And as I say, we were trying to institute that across the United States.
03:09The Republicans stopped us from doing that when we were in the majority of the Senate blocked it.
03:16If we gain control again, which I hope we do, I would like to institute independent commissions for House seats in every state.
03:26That would be a goal of mine.
03:28But right now, it's not an option for Democrats to just be a punching bag for Donald Trump.
03:35So, Congressman, do you think that the outcome of this fight that's happening right now in state after state,
03:40this redistricting fight to redraw these House lines, do you think that this will decide the next House majority?
03:47I think the voters will decide the next House majority.
03:53And I do think, you know, they wouldn't be doing this if they weren't afraid of losing the House.
03:59But this is going to have a huge impact.
04:00This is going to have a huge impact on the next majority, is it not?
04:05The outcome of this fight.
04:06They are in trouble because what they're doing is deeply unpopular in the United States.
04:13From the terrorists, which is crushing small businesses across the country,
04:17raising prices for ordinary Americans, taking health care away from Americans so they can give tax breaks to billionaires.
04:26Those are not popular policies.
04:28That's why they're engaging in this rigging, because they don't want to be held accountable.
04:33Our job is to hold them accountable.
04:35All right.
04:36Congressman Zoe Laughlin from California, thank you so much for joining me and sharing your perspective over this very, very significant fight.
04:43Thank you so much.
Comments