00:00Let's start with the goings on on Capitol Hill this weekend. We're looking for any signs of
00:04progress here as we've seen this standoff between Republicans, Democrats on this funding issue. Do
00:08you see any signs of movement here, any progress as we have the president indicating that ICE is
00:13going to be at American airports on Monday morning? Yeah, I'm not sure that that threat
00:17is helpful for a couple of reasons. One is that ICE isn't trained to do it. But two, I think
00:24we've
00:25got the possibility of actually paying TSA, getting a bill passed that would fix that issue
00:31and put the funding forward there. There's two options. The Democrats have offered an option.
00:36If we can't work something out with respect to ICE, let's just pass a bill that pays everybody else.
00:42And I've also seen the Republicans put on the table some agreement potentially to some of the
00:49demands that Democrats have made with respect to reforming ICE, although they left off the
00:54judicial warrants part. The one thing that the Constitution actually requires they didn't have
00:58in the version that I saw. But I think there's a chance to fix this. You know, sending ICE to
01:05the
01:05airports, you know, if he wants to do it, fine. If he doesn't, fine. I think the biggest way to
01:09fix
01:09this, though, is just to pass the legislation to pay them. Is there any fear, you know, during the last
01:15shutdown, Democrats stood on principle and basically lost. I mean, had to give in where some of the
01:21the party gave in and then it was seen as a political loss. Is there any concern that history
01:27might repeat itself here, especially as the situation, if the situation at airports get worse
01:31and the American public really starts to make noise about how this is impacting their daily lives?
01:35Well, first of all, let me disagree that it was a loss. You know, I didn't agree with my Senate
01:39colleagues who agreed to move forward without getting the actual adjustment for the ACA tax credits.
01:47But I think Democrats in the House certainly made the point. And Americans who had their premiums
01:52double and triple or quadruple fully understand now that it's totally on the Republicans. Trump and
01:59Republicans in Congress refuse to do any kind of extension, even a short term one,
02:04try and figure out a way to keep their premiums for jumping. Those Americans and there's millions of
02:09them are paying the price for that now. With respect to the ICE issue, I think it's kind of the
02:13same
02:13thing. ICE had been solidified in the public mind as a major problem with respect to the Trump
02:20administration. They wanted the border closed down, but they didn't want people getting shot in the
02:25face and killed for exercising their First Amendment rights. And they didn't like people
02:30getting dragged out of their cars and windshields shattered and teacher aides and gardeners and
02:35waitresses getting arrested. They didn't want any of that stuff. And I think we saw that in
02:39Minnesota. So I think at the end of the day, we're going to make sure we hold on and get
02:44as many of
02:45these issues addressed with respect to ICE because they're out of control and people are dying on the
02:50they died on the streets and they're dying in custody in some ways because ICE is not that trained
02:56to do what they're doing right now. And it shows. Let's shift our focus here to the war,
03:01the ongoing war in the Middle East. And we've seen the Pentagon indicate that they're going to request
03:05200 billion dollars for this war. That number could shift a little bit, but still an extraordinary
03:08amount of money, about a third of the Pentagon's budget, the equivalent of that. I'm curious what
03:13your appetite is for a request like that, how you think that's going to go down on Capitol Hill.
03:17I did note that Senator John Kennedy noted he would not go along with that without some more
03:21hearings on strategy in the course of this war. How is this resonating around the other House of
03:26Congress, around the House of Representatives? I mean, I've got zero appetite for that.
03:31200 billion dollars and the fact that he's got Marines heading over there right now strongly suggests
03:36he's looking at putting boots on the ground. And instead of trying to wrap this up quickly,
03:40is looking at the long term type of quagmire that I think we all want to avoid. So I have
03:46zero interest in
03:46that. And 200 billion dollars, you're right. That's a whole lot of money and could have funded,
03:52for example, the ACA tax credit extension we were just talking about a moment ago,
03:56and some of the other major issues with respect to SNAP benefits and the like.
04:01So I think it's way off track. I think it's a number that doesn't make any sense,
04:07especially given some of the stated goals. You know, they haven't actually landed on what the
04:11mission is. And I think they need to come back to Congress if they really want to have an extended
04:16war. Let's have the War Powers Act debate. Let's have a real one this time and have an actual vote
04:21to see if the American people really have an appetite for that. So far, they don't.
04:26And they've made no effort. Trump administration made no effort to persuade the American people.
04:31And that's showing. And as the gas prices get higher, the American people are, I think,
04:36are going to get even less appetite for this. Congressman, I want to ask you about War Powers,
04:40because even if Republicans and Democrats agree that they didn't want the president to go forward
04:45anymore with this military mission, realistically, is there anything Congress can do to stop the
04:51president if he wants to launch a war in Iran or Cuba or anywhere else he decides?
04:57Well, funding is a big part. You know, we control the power of the person. That's what
05:01the $200 billion request is about. And public opinion is another big piece, too. I think he's
05:06really swimming upstream on this one from a public opinion standpoint. You know, gas prices in my area
05:14were about $2.95 or so like a month ago. Now they're getting almost to $4. And, you know,
05:21you layer that on top of the increasing in high prices for groceries due to the tariffs he's put
05:26on top of that, the health care credit expiring. And we just talked about that a moment ago.
05:34Electricity prices, the affordability crisis that's been spawned almost entirely by the Trump
05:40administration is really starting to wear on the American people and undermine. His MAGA base is fine,
05:45but the independents are the ones that are going to drive the midterm elections. And he's way
05:50underwater with them. And the Republican Party is increasingly, too. So I think you might see start
05:56start seeing some defections from Republicans in Congress because they're going to be worried about
06:01getting reelected in November. Last question I have for you about about the war centers on the way
06:06that we've seen it waged thus far. Yes, there have been a lot of kind of the legacy ballistic missiles
06:11that
06:11we've seen deployed in the past, but we've seen so many drones being used, so much emphasis on AI
06:16warfare going forward here. I know that's something of interest to you, work research work that's being
06:19done in your district on AI and quantum computing. How well positioned is the U.S. to embark on this
06:25new kind of warfare as we've seen it play out, yes, in Iran, across the Middle East, but also in
06:29Ukraine as
06:30well? You know, to be frank, I think we've been caught a little flat-footed on this. You know, the
06:36drone
06:37issue, if we'd been paying close attention to what's going on in Ukraine and the fact that Iran
06:43started supplying drones to Russia in the middle of that, we would have been doing more, I think,
06:47to upgrade our ability, not just to build drones and have them ready for ourselves, but for
06:54countermeasures. So right now what we're looking at is drone attacks by Iran, where, you know,
07:00their drones cost like 20,000 bucks for very sophisticated ones. We're using, you know,
07:06anti-measures that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe even a million dollars each.
07:11So it's certainly not cost effective. And I think, you know, we've missed the chance to try and
07:17have countermeasures that are more affordable and allow us to be more sustained in protecting
07:21ourselves and our allies. And I think that's showing right now. So hopefully we can turn the
07:26corner on that relatively quickly. And I think add in the efforts with respect to AI and quantum and
07:33the like, Trump administrations really attack science and, you know, technology a lot in the
07:39United States, certainly the university and research level. We've got to turn that around. China's
07:44pushing engineers and scientists towards these projects by the thousands. We've been cutting back.
07:50We can't afford to do that if we're going to stay competitive with China.
07:53So,
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