Rep. Casten Discusses Republican Meltdown on Capitol Hill
4/22/202620 mincomplete
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0:14MAGA Republicans and MAGA Mike Johnson are in a panic mode as Donald Trump's term
0:20continues to collapse. MAGA Mike just held a press conference moments ago.
0:24He wants everybody to know there's always really been untoward activity on Capitol Hill.
0:30Always lots of marital affairs, lots of this.
0:32This is what MAGA Mike's talking about right now.
0:34I think American people are saying, what's going on with our healthcare?
0:37American people are saying, what's going on with energy causes?
0:39What's going on with this unlawful and catastrophic war in Iran?
0:44And here's what MAGA Mike is doing, defending his approach to ethics on the Hill.
0:49Here's what MAGA Mike said.
0:50Let's play. There's always been untoward activity among political figures.
0:56I mean, going back to time immemorial, right?
0:59There's always been marital infidelity.
1:01There's always been despicable behavior.
1:04It occurs to us that it may not have always been exposed and as transparent
1:09as it is today because of the very active press corps.
1:14Let's go to MAGA Republican Congresswoman Lisa McClain at that same press conference.
1:20Here, play this clip. It is crazy to sacrifice our national economic security for woke
1:28Green New Deal talking points.
1:31So no, energy prices aren't where any of us want them to be.
1:38But energy policy is moving in the right direction because Republicans are leading with common
1:46sense. We screwed you all over.
1:50You are all suffering, American people.
1:53We made you promises. We defrauded you.
1:56But trust us, it's moving in the right direction, even though Donald Trump said that
2:01on day one, things were going to be incredibly cheap.
2:05It's going to be so amazing.
2:06Then we had MAGA Republican Congressmember Andy Ogles on the Hill bragging that what the
2:13American people are most proud about is now the United States is a dominant predator.
2:19And we are a predator across all landscapes.
2:23Home of the predators. This is what he says.
2:26Here, play this clip. This war.
2:28The president told me it's close to ending, but we don't know what's going to
2:32happen right now in Pakistan this afternoon.
2:35Yeah, I mean, you know, we're the dominant predator really across all landscapes.
2:40And I think the president has done an excellent job of sending a message to
2:44the world, but also Iran that we're done.
2:46We're done with the war, you know, the exportation of terror.
2:50And look, the Persian people have an opportunity to get their country back.
2:55And so once this regime realizes, recognizes that we're not going to stop until that
3:00happens, the world is a better place.
3:02I mean, despite the fact that that's quite the opposite of what's happened, they realize
3:06that Donald Trump's done. Trump's bored with his catastrophic war in Iran.
3:10And I think he just thinks he'll make social media posts, all caps, and that's
3:14going to do it. The Iranians are going to say, oh man, did you see
3:17his new truth social post and all of those caps and exclamation points.
3:22Meanwhile, Maga Mike Johnson pushing a new initiative that I know the American people care
3:26about. He dropped. a new account.
3:29The Speaker Johnson war room, a new account drop over there while Donald Trump is
3:34talking about things the American people certainly care about saying, I've always been a big
3:39fan of Tim Cook. And when he called me, I said, wow, it's Tim Apple
3:43Cook exclamation point. How big is that?
3:46I was very impressed with myself to have the head of Apple calling to kiss
3:51my ass. I want to bring in Democratic Congress member Sean Caston right now.
3:55Congress member Caston, this is truly an existential moment for our country.
4:00And I don't say that in a hyperbolic way.
4:02People are psychologically tortured by everything this Trump regime has done.
4:07And every day they come out there like what I shared with you there.
4:10And it looks like the season that was so bad of The Apprentice that it
4:15can never even be aired, that it's so dystopian and gross and weird, except the
4:21reality is it's not parody.
4:23It's real life. And this is impacting so many people, especially at the pump, especially
4:28at home, especially with the unlawful war, especially with affordability.
4:32What do you make of this moment, especially when you see your colleagues, hard to
4:35even say that, but these MAGA Republicans doing that?
4:39I mean, look, there's a very rational response I have, and I'm sure we'll get
4:42into it about, you know, what a good policy would be to actually bring energy
4:47prices down, why we haven't done it historically, you know, and frankly, some of that
4:52blame is, you know, shared around as nonpartisan.
4:55But before getting to that, like, there's, I think it is, it is hard for,
5:00I think, to explain to the people how juvenile this administration is, but we can't
5:05normalize it. We go to, you know, we'll go to classified briefings on Iran, on
5:10Venezuela, where the entirety of the briefing is a ton of classified information.
5:15But it is basically a bunch of effectively 12 -year -old boys talking about how
5:20cool it is to blow things up, giving us like inordinate detail about the weaponry
5:25and where it was located and what time it came in and from what direction
5:28and the troops who came down on a zip line like they were in a
5:31movie. And then when we ask questions, what is the plan?
5:37What is the strategy? How do you define success?
5:41Before you invaded Iran, did you look at a map and see that there's this
5:45Strait of Hormuz that oil flies through?
5:47Did you, did you think maybe you should top up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve beforehand?
5:53Crickets. The entirety of the thought process is the thought process that I had when
5:59I was a 12 -year -old boy and there was a firework store in town
6:02who would look the other way and give us M80s and I could blow up
6:05some of my toys that I'd outgrown.
6:07I think by the time I turned 13 or 14, I was like, that's like
6:10a dumb, immature kid stuff.
6:11But that is how Hegseth and Rubio and Andy Ogles view the role of the
6:17United States. And whether it's this catastrophic war, whether it's energy policy, whether it's the
6:25Department of Labor, and of course we saw there Labor Secretary Chavez de Remer used
6:31to be a congresswoman from Oregon who changed all of her positions from being a
6:36purported moderate Congress member to a MAGA extremist Trump sycophant, and then was apparently partying
6:42in Vegas and all of these other, you know, ridiculous things that, that were unearthed.
6:46I mean, it's just deeply at a level before we'll get into energy policy, but
6:50like it's deeply unserious across the board, the behavior.
6:56I mean, to have the Secretary of State at a UFC fight, you know, like
7:01doing like muscle signs or whatever and fist bumping while there's a negotiation.
7:06taking place in Islamabad, Pakistan, and as Trump talks about triumphal arches or, you know,
7:13just any of the, just the behavior, just not serious human beings at that level
7:19before we even get into, is this good policy or is this not good policy?
7:23Yeah. And I think, I mean, look, I want this to be over yesterday, but
7:29I think the collective project of building back is going to be longer than any
7:33of us want it to be.
7:34I've, I've had conversations with, you know, foreign, I think still are allies.
7:41I don't know, but, you know, foreign partners of the United States who have said
7:44that they are now thinking about the United States with respect to intelligence sharing in
7:50the same way that they have long thought about the United States on climate change.
7:54Namely, we trust you when Democrats are in power, but we now have to wonder
8:00whether the information we provide with you will be safe when a future Republican comes
8:05into power. And so we just have to treat you a little differently.
8:08And like, think about how long it takes to restore that, because it is very
8:13hard to make the case right now that Trump is an anomaly.
8:16It's hard to make the case that he doesn't speak for the values of every
8:20elected Republican in Washington when they're all bowing the knee to him.
8:24And it's very hard to make the case that a future Republican president, because once
8:28there will be another one, who will that be, who will actually comport themselves?
8:35And I shudder to say this, who will comport themselves with the dignity of George
8:39Bush, the second, much less George Bush, the first, right?
8:44Yeah. You know, and going to, you know, domestic energy policy, for example, as you
8:48mentioned, this should be bipartisan, you know, and when you looked at climate powers, new
8:54energy crisis snapshot, I don't view that.
8:57I don't, it shouldn't be a democratic issue or Republican issue.
9:00It should be an American issue.
9:01We should want to be the leaders of the world of clean energy, because not
9:05only does it help the environment, it helps the economy and it can bring down
9:08inflation. And when we have the largest oil supply shock in history, which by the
9:14way, people are kind of pretending that that's not really happening right now.
9:17Like the Strait of Hormuz is still closed.
9:19Why would we be attacking alternative forms of energy that bring down the prices?
9:25And that's a major part of why inflation, you know, is now surging.
9:29And then you hear what the response is from Trump and MAGA.
9:33Yeah, it'll get better in the future, maybe 20, 27, 20, 28.
9:38Just trust me, bro. Trust me.
9:41It was a guy who spent 20 years in the clean energy industry.
9:46If I was still there, I would love Trump's foreign policy, because it raises the
9:53price of dirtier energy sources and makes it easier to sell clean energy.
9:58And I would hate his domestic policy because his domestic policy blocks companies from investing
10:03in precisely those technologies that would mitigate the adverse effects of his foreign policy.
10:07The climate power report you'd mentioned, you know, says that we've lost 180 ,000 jobs
10:14in the clean energy sector and $62 billion of investment with a B has gone
10:20away solely as a result of Trump's domestic energy policies.
10:25I almost, it almost makes me sad that this is under the headline of a
10:29climate power report because we then view that through the lens of, well, these are
10:33clean jobs. Those are democratic jobs.
10:35In fact, most of those jobs were in Republican districts because everybody wants cheap energy,
10:39right? Those jobs were being, were being built because the things that America wants, are
10:44things that means that you don't have to be exposed to volatile prices at the
10:48pump. You don't have to be exposed to volatile prices, you know, from electricity.
10:52You don't have to be exposed to volatile natural gas costs.
10:56If you've got a well -insulated home and, you know, solar panels on the roof
11:00and, you know, maybe an electric vehicle in the driveway, you don't have to do
11:04that, but let's give you access to those technologies and let's prioritize them in the
11:07United States. Now we're not doing that.
11:10You have seen a surge of investment by China in clean energy.
11:17You know, before Elon went crazy, Tesla was the largest EV sailor in the world.
11:21That was a U .S.
11:22company. Now BYD is the largest seller in the country.
11:26We were starting to build a domestic battery chain, a domestic solar chain.
11:32Those industries are now being disfavored by the Trump administration, but the rest of the
11:37world would like to not be beholden to U .S.
11:40energy policy. And so they're not buying from China.
11:43It is insane. We are driving investment out of the United States, driving jobs out
11:48of the United States, all to benefit the tiny minority of Americans who make their
11:54money when the price of oil goes up, when the price of gas goes up,
11:57because they own a well.
11:59The overwhelming majority of Americans, in fact, every American, benefits when the price of energy
12:03goes down. Why is it partisan to look out for them?
12:07And why is it? I mean, is a question that we could probably spend hours
12:12talking about, though. Is it that the, you know, but even when you speak with
12:16people in the oil lobby and you speak to people, even they now, I mean,
12:21in many times recognize that there needs to be some diversification.
12:25I mean, trust me, I mean, they want to protect their, you know, they want
12:28the way of the past.
12:29But even when you hear some things, it's like even they think sometimes it's going
12:34too extreme. So, you know, but Trump talks about his hatred of windmills.
12:38You know, he is infatuated with his hatred of clean energy.
12:42He lies and says that China isn't doing these things that they're doing and that
12:47they're dominating in the world now as a result of it.
12:50So what's your diagnosis? Is it just the strength of the lobby and the way
12:54things were in the past?
12:55Or what is the hold of it?
12:57Because this is jobs. This is jobs in MAGA Republican Congress members' districts, regardless of
13:03if they're Trump sycophants. This is, this should not be Democrat -Republican.
13:08Well, so I think, and I think this is a place where I think we
13:13can all benefit from some empathy.
13:18After the Inflation Reduction Act was passed, I was part of a delegation that was
13:22at the climate conference in Egypt.
13:24And our first meeting was with President Sisi of Egypt.
13:27And interestingly enough, he was chastising us for the Inflation Reduction Act because he said
13:33that as a result of that bill, lots of global capital was now flowing to
13:38the United States that used to flow to the global south.
13:41And it was going to make it harder for, you know, you know, folks like
13:45him to transition their economies and grow them and become part of the, you know,
13:49the first world. And I said to him in response, you know, we're not going
13:53to apologize for investing in the United States, but if you stop subsidising your fossil
13:58fuel sector, it would, you would, you would remove the distortion that keeps capital from
14:04flowing into your country. And a lot of those dollars that are now flowing from
14:07the IRA, you could, you know, you could be competing on the merits.
14:10And his response was, if I stop subsidising the fossil fuel sector, I'm going to
14:16have huge numbers of unemployed young men.
14:18And that is going to create a potent recruiting tool for the Muslim Brotherhood.
14:24we can view that as the cynical response of an Egyptian president and, you know,
14:28all the corruption of the Egyptian government.
14:31Or I think we can view that with some empathy and say, what would happen
14:34if we really unlocked cheap energy in the United States?
14:38If we got the thousands of gigawatts of solar and wind and batteries that's sitting
14:43there waiting in the queue to be interconnected to the grid and brought it online?
14:46Well, that's going to make it a lot harder for coal plants to compete.
14:50It's going to cause a lot of young men in Appalachian coal seams or, you
14:55know, the Bakken oil shale that John Thune represents or the, you know, the LNG
15:01export terminals that Mike Johnson represents.
15:03It's going to cause a lot of those young men to lose their jobs and
15:06that is going to be a potent recruiting tool for the Proud Boys, right?
15:10So I think there is that understandable tension of when you have been so focused
15:16for so long on putting the interest of energy producers over the interest of energy
15:21consumers, ripping that bandaid off is politically disruptive.
15:26And, you know, and in the Inflation Reduction Act, that was a part of the
15:30reason why we put all those additional incentives for energy transition communities.
15:35Let's, you know, let's, let's make it more attractive to, you know, to build the
15:41battery plant, you know, where there used to be a coal mine to create jobs
15:45for that community to help them bring the Walmart back into town.
15:49And, you know, and you can see that in this climate power report, the, I
15:54got to see if I can find the right page, but more than, more than
15:5650 % of the projects that have been cut, more than 50 % of the
16:00jobs that have been lost have been in red parts of the country.
16:04That's not because the Biden administration was saying, I got to give this to my
16:09political opponents. It's because extractive America, it's not synonymous, but it rhymes with red America.
16:17Productive America is not synonymous, but it rhymes with blue America.
16:21And so if we're going to really put consumers first, you know, it's going to
16:28hurt places like Kentucky, like West Virginia, like the Gulf Coast, it's going to benefit
16:33places like New York and Chicago and California, you know, the places that really dominate
16:37our economy. And we are all Americans, right?
16:41And if we're looking out to benefit all Americans, that's going to be fine.
16:45But the Republicans just can't get out of their own way on this.
16:49What do we do right now?
16:51I mean, in this moment, obviously, Republicans control, you know, both chambers.
16:56That may change in a little bit.
16:58But what do you as you look forward more generally?
17:02What's what's your I mean, you know, this area, probably more than anybody, you know,
17:07on on the Hill, given your background, like, what do you want the American people
17:11who are watching this right now who see the chaos that I showed at the
17:14beginning of what MAGA Republicans on?
17:16There's a lot of distractions.
17:17And sometimes energy policy is not top of mind, although price at the pump is
17:23top of mind, but thinking more holistically about making that connection.
17:27So what do you say to people before we go?
17:29So politically, we've got to win the election.
17:32The way we win the election is by converting people.
17:34You know, I'm grateful for what you do.
17:36And this network does to make space for people who voted differently in the past,
17:41but they can come back into the fold.
17:43You know, I, you know, I remind people all the time that if you loved
17:46Ronald Reagan's immigration policy, there's plenty of room for you in the Democratic Party.
17:50If you love George H .W.
17:51Bush's foreign policy, there's plenty of room for you in the Democratic Party.
17:55You know, you can, you can hold, if you love Richard Nixon's environmental policy, there's
17:58plenty of room for you.
17:59Right? So you can hold all of those Republican beliefs and come back in.
18:03Once we do that, you know, once we win, I think, you know, we get
18:08the gavels back, we do oversight.
18:09I think we have to have an energy policy that unambiguously puts the interests of
18:13consumers first and is not confused about whether that should be a priority of U
18:18.S. energy policy. And then I think we just need to keep, well, let me
18:24say outside of the political realm, because, you know, most of your people listening are
18:27probably not elected officials. The cheapest forms of energy are the cleanest forms of energy.
18:34And yes, maybe, you know, our political environment federally is doing less than it used
18:39to do, but that just means everybody else has to step up.
18:42There is nobody who has a solar panel on the roof who regrets that economic
18:46decision because every day that the sun is shining, that's a cheaper source of power.
18:51You know, there's nobody who has an electric vehicle in the driveway who says, man,
18:54if the price of gasoline was a little lower, I'll probably not be able to
18:57afford to drive my EV, right?
18:58Those are always the cheaper technologies.
19:01So anything we can do in our homes and our schools and our businesses and
19:05our communities to deploy that capital is going to give you an extremely attractive long
19:11-term asset. And that's an investment for your own selfish interests.
19:16It's also an investment in the United States and the U .S.
19:18economy. Congressman Kasten, thanks for joining us.
19:23We appreciate you and taking us on this journey from what I showed at the
19:26beginning with MAGA Mike to just some common sense policy, which frankly, really shouldn't matter
19:31regardless of your political party.
19:33We just, we just got to be, we got to be smart as a nation.
19:35We got to think through things again.
19:37We got to plan and we got it.
19:39We just got to be grownups.
19:40We got to be adults in the room right now.
19:42Thanks for joining us, Congressman.
19:44Thanks for having me. Take care.
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