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Interface: An interview with Chris Casquejo, ex-VOA Asia Weekly host
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NewsTranscript
00:00In our interview feature tonight, we bring back former VOA Asia weekly anchor and correspondent for the Indo-Pacific region who helped us cover the U.S. presidential elections in 2024.
00:11His resume includes working for TV stations in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana and Florida prior to joining Voice of America in 2021.
00:20He is also a longtime member of the Asian American Journalists Association.
00:23He is now the host of China and Us and across the Indo-Pacific on his YouTube channel, Chris Cascajo.
00:31And he joined us tonight to get us up to speed on Voice of America, an international broadcast institution which was shut down by the Trump administration on efforts to downsize the federal government.
00:42He's also going to share his insights on the state of U.S. politics and government nearly a year into the Trump 2.0 presidency.
00:50A happy new year to you, my piano playing and singing friend.
00:53Happy new year, Chris. Good morning.
00:57Yeah, it's great to be back with you after. Wow. It's been a long time.
01:02Yes, it's been a heck of a year. What did you say?
01:05All right. So first things first.
01:08Could you get us up to speed on yourself and the current status of Voice of America?
01:13The last thing I remember is a federal judge rescinding an order by Carrie Lake, summarily letting go of hundreds of Voice of America folk.
01:21Yeah, so those hundreds of people are still effectively on staff at Voice of America, but they are on paid administrative leave.
01:30I was one of 600 contractors who was officially let go at the end of May 2025.
01:37So it's been, you know, several months now that 600 of us contractors have no longer been employed at Voice of America.
01:44But this week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers released their budget for fiscal year 2026 that funds our parent agency, the parent agency of Voice of America, USAGM, to the tune of $653 million.
02:00That would be about a $200 million cut from the fiscal year budget of 2025.
02:07But it indicates that there is bipartisan support in Congress to continue funding Voice of America and international broadcasting at the government level,
02:17despite the executive order in March of 2025 that effectively shut down Voice of America.
02:23Where Voice of America stands now, it is broadcasting in just a handful of languages, including Dari, Pashto, and Mandarin,
02:31which is down from the 49 different languages that it was broadcasting in until March of 2025 when Trump issued that executive order.
02:41And now we are expecting a ruling.
02:43There are two cases involving VOA employees against the administration.
02:48And the employees have asked for what's called a summary judgment, asking the judge, the federal judge who's overseeing this case,
02:56to restore Voice of America and international broadcasting in the U.S. to its level than it was before March 14th of last year.
03:05So, you know, there is hope for restoration, but it really is depending on the courts and what happens with Congress.
03:15Obviously, with this budget figures that Congress has released on Sunday, the president would have to sign off on any budget.
03:24So, you know, it's iffy as to what would happen there.
03:27But we do see that there is bipartisan support for Voice of America continuing.
03:32All right. Well, we are hoping alongside everyone.
03:37All right. Turning to international affairs.
03:40As we know, the recent Venezuela siege has supposedly crippled the goals of Maduro, disrupting trade routes.
03:47And we've got also the access to Venezuelan oil.
03:51Right now, we have Venezuela's premier opposition leader and reigning Nobel Peace Prize winner, Maria Corina Machado,
03:57who is paying U.S. President Donald Trump a visit at the White House.
04:01Trump has never endorsed her to lead the country after Maduro's abduction and ouster.
04:07But she's bringing something Trump really covets, her Nobel Peace Prize hardware, which he reportedly will hand over to Trump.
04:14But this only guarantees a verbal endorsement.
04:18So what's Trump going to offer more than just lip service?
04:22What do you think?
04:22Well, first of all, she cannot legally transfer the Nobel Peace Prize to Donald Trump.
04:32The Nobel Institute has come out in the past couple of days saying that, you know, the award is non-transferable and it's permanent.
04:41So it cannot be re-signed, shared, revoked, or passed on to another person under the Nobel Foundation statutes.
04:48Now, she could physically hand Trump the award, the medal, as a symbolic gesture, but the Norwegian Nobel Committee and the Nobel Institute would not recognize it.
04:58And Trump's name would never appear in official records.
05:01So basically, he'd be holding on to it, but it would still be in her name.
05:04So what can he actually offer Machado that matters?
05:09Maybe political recognition as the legitimate leader of Venezuela, but that is unlikely because they've already, the administration has in the past few days said that it will continue to back Delcey Rodriguez, who was the vice president under Nicolas Maduro's regime.
05:25He can also talk about sanctions and oil policy leverage that directly affect Maduro's grip on power.
05:34And security guarantees and credible election monitoring for when the country actually calls election.
05:42Now, observers say that it's a good sign that the two are actually meeting, despite the backing of Delcey Rodriguez, who's the current vice president.
05:51Maria Correa Machado has enjoyed a long relationship with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
05:59He actually wrote one of the recommendations for her getting the Nobel Peace Prize a few months ago.
06:07OK, we're barely two weeks into the new year and a week shy of U.S.
06:10President Donald Trump's first year anniversary in his 2.0 presidency.
06:15And Trump has claimed control over Venezuela, which I mentioned just now, planning to annex Greenland despite NATO pushback.
06:22And we have seen turmoil and chaos in the streets of the Guffer State as ICE agents mount their overly aggressive arrests against legal and even illegal and even legal immigrants and even American citizens.
06:34And there's also these stepped attacks against Fed Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, whose latest subpoena from the DOJ has the business community and even allies pushing back.
06:44You know, all these events do not augur favorably for the GOP retaining, retaining control of Congress.
06:50So if the Democrats take over, do you see another impeachment stab against Trump for his excessive policies and executive orders?
06:58I mean, just a year in power, people have mentioned that Trump has allegedly committed more impeachable acts than during his first term when he was impeached twice.
07:07So is it a no-brainer that the Democrats will attempt to impeach him anew?
07:13Yeah, and for his part, President Trump has said he expects to be impeached again for the third time if Republicans lose control of Congress, specifically of the House.
07:26Now, but there are political risks for Democrats involved because impeachments are very time-consuming should they, you know, regain control of the House.
07:36And it would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate, which is very unlikely because even if the Senate flips, it's unlikely that they'll have any Republicans cross over to vote to convict Donald Trump in another impeachment and remove him from office.
07:56So, you know, this is a lot of talk.
08:00We just have to see what happens as the midterm elections approach.
08:03But all these issues that you brought up, you know, they really play into the Democratic argument that Trump has brought on instability, you know, and Americans really don't vote based on foreign policy.
08:18But polling has showed that they do not support at least, you know, the incursion into Venezuela, and they do not support a takeover of Greenland.
08:29So it will all be played out as the campaigns ramp up in these midterm elections that will decide control of Congress.
08:38OK, turning to the age-old Game of Thrones, we've now seen 17 House Republicans crossing over to the join the Democrat side over the past weekend to pass the proposed three-year extension on federal tax grants for those enrolled in health insurance plans covered by Obamacare.
08:56Now, do you think, Chris, that the Senate will shut this down, or will this reach the president's desk, which he surely will veto and send it back to Congress for an override vote?
09:05Yeah, it's unlikely to make it through the Senate in its current form.
09:10I mean, they are working against a deadline that should be today because open enrollment for Affordable Care Act plans ends today.
09:22So, you know, whatever happens, costs are already going up for people paying for health care that relied on these subsidies to the tune of, you know, several hundred dollars a month.
09:33So it's really playing into the issue of affordability that voters have told pollsters is the biggest issue leading up to the midterms and was the biggest issue and the reason why Trump won in 2024.
09:47Okay, 2028 is just a little over two years away, so let's play a little game here called contender-pretender.
09:56So I'll be mentioning names. Tell me who among these names from both the Democratic Party and the GOP are serious or likely candidates for the 2028 presidential elections.
10:05Okay, first up, we've got Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Contender-pretender.
10:11As a presidential candidate, yeah, I would say that he's a pretender. You know, they like him in the leadership position that he is in.
10:21Okay, next up, we've got Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
10:27She's a contender. Battleground State, enjoying recent polls show her enjoying 60% approval ratings in that state of Michigan.
10:36Illinois Governor J.D. Pritzker.
10:38He's definitely a contender because he has his own family fortune dealing with the Hyatt hotel chain, so he could take on Trump or he could take on whoever is the nominee in the Republican side with his own fortune.
10:56Okay, of course, we all know New York Representative AOC, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez.
11:00I would say that she's a pretender at this point, only because she hasn't shown an ability to cross over to appeal to more moderate Democrats.
11:12Maryland Governor Wes Moore.
11:15I would say that he's early status contender because he doesn't have the national profile yet, but he's impressed a lot of the people, the funders who would decide to fund primaries and campaigns.
11:30We may see a comeback from former Vice President Kamala Harris.
11:33I would say that she is a pretender.
11:39She does have the name-roughing issue, but she lost, and a lot of people in the Democratic Party haven't forgiven her for burning through a billion dollars in her campaign and losing the presidency to Donald Trump.
11:53California Governor Gavin Newsom.
11:55At this stage, he's a strong contender.
11:59He's got a strong national profile, but what works against him is that, you know, he's going to be painted as a West Coast liberal by Republicans, so we'll have to see if he can draw moderate appeal.
12:13Okay, now on the Republican or GOP party, we've got Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
12:18He's still a contender because Florida is one of those states that has really aggressively implemented the president's agenda, you know, but we saw last time that he really didn't have the personality to carry him through the primaries, and he dropped out very early in 2024.
12:38Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
12:39I would say he's a pretender.
12:45He's been on the national stage for a long time, and he's very polarizing.
12:50Former ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley.
12:54She could be a contender, but I would give her, like, 50-50 status because there is no sign that the Republican Party wants to move back in a more moderate direction.
13:05Okay, former Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson.
13:11I would say that he's a pretender because he hasn't indicated that he wants to run, and he's making a lot of money hosting his online show.
13:21Okay, one of the world's richest guys, Elon Musk.
13:24Impossible, so he's definitely a pretender because he's ineligible to run under the Constitution because he was not, he's not a native-born U.S. citizen, even born in South America.
13:36Okay, last but not the least, Vice President J.D. Vance.
13:40Likely the leading contender, so he is the contender, I would say, because he has the office of Vice President, and he is the point person for a lot of the President's policies,
13:55especially defending ICE and what happened in the shooting in Minnesota of the woman in the car, Renee Goode.
14:01So he has the profile, but again, he has charisma issues, and a lot of people have really not warmed up to J.D. Vance.
14:12So he is the strongest contender, but how he would fare in a general election remains to be seen.
14:16All right. Now, moving on to the other issues, if Trump would make good on his work to annex and take control of Greenland,
14:27now, do you think this would embolden the Chinese to also take over and reclaim Taiwan sooner or later,
14:32or even militarize and take control of more disputed maritime territories in the South China or West Philippine Sea?
14:39Yeah, it doesn't, per se, embolden China to do those things that they've already been doing.
14:50But it weakens the U.S. moral and diplomatic argument against it, because, you know,
14:57and encouraging Ian to Greenland is a sovereign territory of Denmark.
15:04And, you know, the upheaval in Venezuela, removing Maduro from power was involvement in another nation's sovereignty.
15:15So when major powers appear to blur norms around sovereignty, it creates an environment in the world
15:22where this kind of coercive behavior that China's engaged in appears more acceptable.
15:28And, you know, as we know, in the West Philippine Sea, China's assertiveness is already growing.
15:34So a distracted or divided alliance system makes such behavior more likely.
15:42So China's definitely not discouraged by what's happening, you know, with the U.S.
15:48as it relates to Venezuela and Trump coveting Greenland.
15:52Many thanks for your insight, Chris Cascajo, who is the host, as I mentioned earlier, of China and us
15:59and across the Indo-Pacific on YouTube.
16:01Follow him on his YouTube channel, Chris Cascajo.
16:04Always a pleasure.
16:05Looking forward to our next show.
16:09Yeah, so good to be back with you, and we'll see you again soon.
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