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Date: 2024-12-21 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00027120

INTERVIEW BRIAN TAYLOR COHEN WITH SECRETARY BUTTIGIEG Brian Tyler Cohen talks with Pete Buttigieg. Includes short SMACK DOWN of Marjorie Taylor Greene PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uab2TRgVOls Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess
Fed up Pete Buttigieg SMACKS DOWN Marjorie Taylor Greene Brian Tyler Cohen Jul 21, 2024 2.87M subscribers Interviews with Brian Tyler Cohen INTERVIEW: Brian interviews Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg about how to approach a Democratic Party split over Joe Biden, his response to certain Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene and JD Vance who tried to blame Democrats for Trump’s shooting, and his reaction to even Republicans trying to distance themselves from Project 2025. LISTEN TO FULL PODCAST EPISODE HERE: Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3yazsWX Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4bO0ilD Order my new book SHAMELESS: https://www.harpercollins.com/pages/s... Subscribe for more and follow me here: YouTube (español): / @briantylercohenespanol Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/36UvEHs Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0066rKC... Twitter: / briantylercohen Instagram: / briantylercohen Facebook: / briantylercohen Patreon: / briantylercohen Newsletter: https://www.briantylercohen.com/sign-up/ TikTok: / briantylercohen Suit by JB Clothiers: https://jbclothiers.com/btc Transcript 0:00 I'm joined now by the Secretary of Transportation Pete Budaj thanks so much for joining me thanks for having me of course so the issue of whether or not President Biden will remain on the ballot has obviously become a very big news story right now on one hand we have the most legislatively successful president of our lifetimes on the other there are concerns about his ability to prosecute the case for a second term so what do you say to an audience that's largely split on this issue so because 0:25 of the campaign rules and because I'm 0:26 here as secretary I can't talk about the 0:28 campaign side of things what I can talk 0:30 about is what a good president as well 0:33 as a good man and a good boss Joe Biden 0:35 is and as you noted a record of 0:38 accomplishment that no modern president 0:42 can really compare to in terms of the 0:44 the legislation that's gotten done the 0:45 things I've been here in La marking 0:48 today from from ports to to buses to to 0:50 Transit and that's just a piece of it 0:52 just the transportation piece of it so 0:54 I'm I'm really proud to be part of this 0:57 team now you were in Pennsylvania uh 1:00 this week obviously the shooting in 1:02 Pennsylvania happened just over just 1:04 about a week ago when Donald Trump was 1:06 shot at his rally in Butler there were a 1:08 faction of Republicans and that includes 1:09 marger Taylor green JD Vance who was 1:11 obviously chosen as Donald Trump's VP 1:13 pick um who wasted zero time in 1:16 basically pinning the blame on 1:18 Democratic rhetoric what's your reaction 1:20 to that charge well it's it's absurd and 1:23 to be clear President Biden said uh what 1:27 I think most Americans felt which is 1:29 that 1:30 you cannot make any excuses for any 1:33 political violence and in his Oval 1:35 Office address he called to the grace 1:37 and decency of this country and while 1:40 there were some voices that were quick 1:41 to politicize this I I will note that 1:44 generally not universally but 1:46 generally that view came from ACR the 1:50 Right View came from across the 1:52 political spectrum and across the 1:53 country saying that we we cannot 1:56 tolerate political violence now we do 1:58 need I think to go once step further and 2:01 insist that you can't be against 2:04 political violence selectively right it 2:07 is horrific and wrong for there to have 2:09 been an attempt on President Trump's 2:11 life it was horrific and wrong for there 2:13 to be be an attempt on Gretchen 2:15 whitmer's life this is often uh 2:17 short-handed in the press as a 2:19 kidnapping plot but just to be clear 2:20 this was a kidnap and murder plot 2:22 against Gretchen Whitmer it was horrific 2:25 and wrong for there to be the shooting 2:26 that injured Steve scales a republican 2:28 member of Congress it was horrific and 2:30 wrong when there was an attempt on the 2:32 lives of the Pelosi that nearly killed 2:34 Paul Pelosi uh anywhere you look 2:36 certainly uh uh whether we're talking 2:38 about January 6th or these Lone Wolf 2:41 events there is only one legitimate 2:44 answer and that is that violence has 2:45 absolutely no place in our politics and 2:47 and anytime we see anybody flirting with 2:50 violent rhetoric we need to confront it 2:52 yeah and I I think it's especially 2:53 ironic that you know I know you can't 2:55 speak on this because of hatch act's 2:57 concerns but you know it has been Donald 2:58 Trump who you know to that exact point 3:00 kind of laughed off the kidnapping plot 3:02 against Gretch and Whitmer who laughed 3:04 off uh and reposted an image of 3:06 President Biden hog tied in the back of 3:07 a truck who who incited the events of 3:10 January 6th and is now predicating in 3:12 large part uh his reelection campaign on 3:14 freeing those insurrectionists who were 3:16 who were uh jailed as the result of 3:18 those crimes so again to your point you 3:20 know you can't do this selectively if 3:21 you want to be against political 3:22 violence then you can't just be against 3:24 it when it happens to your own side you 3:25 have to be against it across the board 3:28 categorically now pivoting to project 3:30 2025 here that has become a liability 3:32 for Republicans as more and more 3:34 Americans actually figure out what the 3:36 hell it is um what does it say that 3:39 Republicans are now effectively running 3:41 away from their own agenda it's pretty 3:43 alarming stuff and to be clear it's been 3:45 embraced by a number of congressional 3:47 Republicans that uh we deal with and 3:49 work with at the US Department of 3:51 Transportation and just taking the 3:52 transportation piece alone you look at 3:54 what's in there privatizing highways 3:56 tolling them um they even uh uh came out 4:01 against Vision zero that is our vision 4:03 to end traffic deaths roadway deaths in 4:06 this country I I just can't think of 4:08 something that should be less partisan 4:10 than the idea we don't want to get 4:11 people killed on our roadways uh act uh 4:15 being against our Railway safety rules 4:18 like the rule that says if you got a 4:19 two-mile Long Train Running through a 4:21 community carrying hazardous material 4:23 you ought to have at least as general 4:24 rule you to have at least two people on 4:26 it I think that's pretty common sensical 4:27 most Americans are probably shocked to 4:29 know that that wasn't a rule until we 4:30 made it one and this uh this Think Tank 4:33 uh project says that that uh we should 4:36 get rid of it you just look at item 4:37 after item by the way as a quick aside 4:39 is especially ironic considering those 4:40 were the same people who are very quick 4:41 to blame you for what happened in East 4:43 Palestine yeah and and and yet those 4:45 same people in Congress are nowhere to 4:47 be found right now when there's a 4:49 bipartisan Railway safety act still 4:50 waiting its turn uh it moved through 4:52 through Committee in the Senate and and 4:54 that's pretty much it uh Airline 4:55 consumer protection you know we move to 4:57 hold Airlines accountable for unfair and 4:58 deceptive uh practices this uh proposal 5:01 says that we shouldn't even have the 5:03 ability or the authority to do that 5:04 proposes getting rid of discretionary 5:06 grants like the one that uh we were 5:08 celebrating this morning at the Port of 5:09 Long Beach to install thousands and 5:12 thousands of feet of on do rail which 5:14 means that you can move containers onto 5:16 trains without having to wait for a 5:18 truck to get ready takes about 750 5:20 trucks to to move one train worth of 5:22 containers if you count all the 5:23 movements uh which which is a clear win 5:25 for our supply chain so it's just such a 5:27 backward way of thinking and and it does 5:30 seem now that that um there are some 5:33 Congressional Republicans and others who 5:34 were kind of embarrassed by it and 5:35 trying to tip to away from it but let's 5:37 be very clear this is their agenda this 5:39 is not coming from like some dude you 5:42 know with with with with a Blog 5:43 somewhere I mean this is the Heritage 5:45 Foundation this is like the intellectual 5:47 engine of the policy apparatus of uh uh 5:50 certainly every conservative 5:51 Administration in my lifetime the same 5:53 Heritage Foundation by the way that is 5:54 quite literally sponsoring the RNC right 5:56 now um you know I'm I'm not sure whether 5:59 they're also sponsoring Matt Gates's uh 6:01 Botox recent Botox budget but that would 6:04 obviously be more significant outlay um 6:06 back to project 2025 within that 900 6:09 page framework is a plan where 6:11 Republicans would seek to reinstate um 6:14 an executive order related well called 6:16 schedule F and that would that would um 6:19 basically 6:21 reclassify as few as 50,000 but likely 6:24 hundreds of thousands of career civil 6:25 servants as political appointees who 6:28 would no longer be bound by by an 6:30 adherence to the law or the Constitution 6:32 but rather to loyalty to a political 6:35 party what would it mean for the federal 6:37 government if that section in particular 6:40 is if that executive order is reinstated 6:43 that would be disastrous I mean the the 6:44 crazy thing is we went through this as a 6:46 country uh in the days of you know 6:49 presidents Garfield and Teddy Roosevelt 6:51 and figured out that a modern country 6:53 ought to have a professional civil 6:54 service at our department the Department 6:56 of Transportation uh about a hundred 6:59 people are political appointees like me 7:01 and the other 55,000 are career civil 7:04 servants who don't have to be loyal to 7:06 this or that President they could be 7:08 Republican Democrat independent doesn't 7:09 matter don't care uh what matters is are 7:11 you good at your job as a geographer for 7:14 the federal rail Administration or an 7:15 air traffic controller in the tower at 7:17 LAX or as somebody who uh draws up the 7:21 the legal boundaries on on safety 7:24 regulations for uh uh for uh side view 7:26 mirrors or any of the things that people 7:28 are doing day in Day Out out to keep the 7:29 American people safe the last thing they 7:31 should be thinking about is the idea 7:34 that they could lose their job because 7:36 they were considered insufficiently 7:38 loyal to the president that's not how it 7:40 works for very good reason yes if you 7:43 want to be uh you know in a job like 7:45 mine or uh you know uh uh some of the 7:48 more kind of politically sensitive roles 7:52 uh those are are politically appointed 7:54 all I'll mention like even a lot of the 7:56 political appointees in our department 7:57 are subject matter experts uh uh some of 8:00 whom uh have even uh uh you know had 8:03 profiles in the past as career civil 8:05 servants and then uh were were appointed 8:06 to their roles just because they're 8:08 they're the best person for the job uh 8:10 and happen to be serving in a democratic 8:12 Administration but I the idea that you 8:14 would go back on that after everything 8:16 we've learned as a country about the 8:18 importance of professionalism in public 8:20 service just flies in the face of good 8:23 government flies in the face of good 8:24 government but here's an issue that I've 8:26 been trying to beat the drum about over 8:28 and over again because I think this is 8:30 really flying under the radar but for 8:31 example if you turn the doj or the FBI 8:34 or the law enforcement Community into 8:38 Political appointees as opposed to 8:39 Career civil servants prosecutors who 8:41 know what they're doing who know the law 8:42 then for example we saw in 2020 how 8:45 Republicans would constantly bring these 8:47 lawsuits forward or or just claims in 8:49 the media where they would allege that 8:51 ballots that came out of Detroit were 8:53 all fraudulent ballots that came out of 8:55 Milwaukee or Madison were fraudulent 8:56 ballots that came out of Philadelphia 8:58 all areas that just so happened to be 9:00 Democratic strongholds uh none of them 9:02 counted and of course a lot of this was 9:03 laughed off and even someone like Bill 9:05 bar who I don't think would would get a 9:08 lot of you know I don't think there's a 9:09 lot of love loss between both of us and 9:11 Bill bar but someone like a leftist 9:13 hardly a leftist even he said that those 9:15 claims were and those were his 9:17 actual words that it was and 9:19 that was likely bolstered by the fact 9:20 that he would have seemed like a clown 9:22 if he actually validated these claims 9:24 when the rest of the Department of 9:25 Justice could see that there was no 9:26 there there but without those guard 9:29 rails without those career civil 9:31 servants who are actually Bound By by um 9:34 you know adherence to the the law what 9:36 would it look like for example if what 9:38 happened in 2020 happens let's say let's 9:41 say you know just in this thought 9:43 experiment Donald Trump wins and it's 9:45 2028 and all of a sudden you have 9:47 hundreds of thousands of political 9:48 appointees who are running the doj and 9:50 the FBI what would it look like if they 9:52 brought forward claims of of you know 9:54 unsubstantiated but claims of voter 9:56 fraud yeah the the the politicization of 10:00 a um a law enforcement function like 10:02 that would be nightmarish and again I'll 10:04 tread carefully in my words because you 10:05 know we actually care about following 10:06 laws at the Hatch Act and that sort of 10:08 thing but I I can tell you serving in 10:10 this Administration that uh the 10:13 president the White House they are uh 10:16 extremely almost ridiculously careful 10:19 about not interfering politically with 10:22 the processes of the justice department 10:24 or or or law enforcement uh because we 10:27 know that so much in our democratic 10:30 system depends on keeping those things 10:32 independent from politics and you've 10:34 seen that uh to to a fault uh and you've 10:36 seen that by the way in the way that 10:37 that that a justice department has 10:39 independently acted in ways that uh uh 10:42 the White House from a political 10:43 perspective might vigorously Challenge 10:45 and be upset with but are not going to 10:48 uh put a thumb on the scale because the 10:50 president cares so much about the 10:53 independence from politics of our 10:55 judicial system in an event in a 10:58 hypothetical event and let me and if you 10:59 can't answer this because of hatch 11:01 considerations that's totally fine but 11:02 in a hypothetical event where we do 11:04 cross that threshold and there is no 11:07 longer you know it doesn't it ceases to 11:10 be uh an issue where there's you know 11:12 career civil servants and instead we 11:13 have political appointees and you cross 11:15 that that threshold into kind of a 11:18 system where now people are not really 11:20 focused on following the law they're 11:21 just focused on on staying loyal to an 11:24 autocratic figure is is there a way to 11:27 come back from that we've seen a lot of 11:29 examples of countries where it does work 11:31 like that where you don't have 11:33 assurances about the rule of law places 11:35 like Russia in a different way places 11:38 like China I don't know anybody in 11:40 America who would if they thought about 11:42 it for a minute prefer to deal with that 11:44 prefer to be in that system and I don't 11:47 know how you get back if you allow that 11:50 to happen which is why we can't allow it 11:51 to happen in the first place another 11:53 part of the project 2025 agenda to to to 11:56 move more toward um your beat here is 11:58 it's hostility toward clean energy um 12:01 and that's a a sentiment that has 12:02 largely pervaded the entire Republican 12:04 party uh so first off I feel like I need 12:07 your response to this and you think gas 12:10 prices are high now just wait until 12:12 you're forced to drive an electric 12:15 vehicle 12:16 so I don't even know how to ask this 12:19 question but 12:21 how H how all right yeah yeah where do 12:24 you begin right first of all nobody's 12:25 forcing anybody to drive anything um 12:29 except this I will I will acknowledge 12:31 this we are forcing the Auto industry to 12:35 innovate and make gas cars more uh fuel 12:38 efficient as we have done since the 12:39 Nixon administration because it saves 12:41 people money at the pump we are trying 12:42 to save people money on fueling their 12:45 car whether they do it with gasoline or 12:46 whether they do it with electricity and 12:48 part of how you do that is by requiring 12:50 industry to get more efficient when we 12:53 have first introduced Cafe standards 12:54 that's what they're called corporate 12:55 average fuel efficiency standards again 12:57 in the Nixon years so this is not some 12:59 modern Progressive Democrat woke uh 13:01 invention uh the the uh miles per gallon 13:04 were I think the first standards are 13:06 something like 18 mil a gallon and then 13:07 industry is like this is too hard we 13:09 can't do this this is overregulation and 13:10 over the years industry got better 13:12 because we required them to step it up 13:14 and that has been to the benefit of not 13:17 just the environment just people's 13:18 pockets not having to buy that much gas 13:21 um I would add that what we are doing is 13:25 making it more affordable for people 13:26 have to have the choice of an electric 13:28 vehicle which is more efficient which is 13:31 cheaper to fill up which is cheaper to 13:34 maintain because it has fewer moving 13:36 parts and which is finally actually 13:37 become cheaper to buy increasingly it's 13:39 the case that if you look at an EV and a 13:41 comparable gas car partly because of our 13:43 tax credits uh the eeve is actually 13:45 coming in cheaper now and that's been 13:46 our goal to make it accessible for 13:48 people who want to to choose that we're 13:50 not forcing anybody to pick one or the 13:52 other matter of fact uh if you just look 13:54 at the evolution of the industry and the 13:55 charging stations are we can't do it 13:59 overnight and that's why the goal is 14:00 roughly half by the end of the decade 14:02 it's also probably worth noting uh from 14:04 R Taylor green that uh you probably 14:07 aren't too concerned about the cost of 14:08 gas if you're driving an EV so I don't 14:09 know what that fearmongering was to 14:12 accomplish for her if you really wanted 14:13 to think it through I suppose if 14:14 everybody's driving an EV then Global 14:16 petroleum markets would probably show a 14:18 drop in demand which mean oil would 14:19 actually be cheaper but I doubt she 14:21 thought through all of those yeah yeah 14:23 something tells me that that wasn't that 14:25 wasn't a very wellth thought out uh uh 14:26 concept there uh with that said that was 14:29 part of a broader hearing on on Eves and 14:33 and climate where Republicans largely 14:35 threw everything that they had at you so 14:37 um for those who are watching right now 14:39 who have some modicum of self-respect 14:42 and didn't subject themselves to 14:43 listening to Republicans uh you know 14:45 beat up on you for hours on end you're 14:47 saying not everybody tuned into to the 14:48 transportation and infrastructure house 14:50 Committee hearing it was centilating 14:51 yeah um well well for those people I 14:54 figured that we could do something of a 14:56 mock hearing here so if it's okay with 14:57 you I'll be all Republicans and you 15:01 could be you if that works and actually 15:03 for this moment I figured to really get 15:05 into character I I had to buy uh my gun 15:08 pin here so we have we have a gun pin so 15:12 I'll wear 15:13 this and hopefully this doesn't get 15:16 taken out of context because which I'm 15:19 sure it won't the internet is famous for 15:21 yeah nuance and yeah irony is well 15:23 understood on the internet nothing to 15:25 worry about okay so here we go uh don't 15:28 worry you will get my family's Christmas 15:30 card now with all the kids holding 15:32 AR-15s okay so I'll start no one is even 15:36 buying a EVS anymore all right so every 15:39 year more Americans buy EVS than the 15:42 year before and uh every quarter we have 15:44 seen year on-year growth in EV sales 15:46 because more Americans keep choosing EVS 15:48 they're way more expensive than gas 15:50 powered vehicles no they're not if you 15:53 look at an equivalent you look at a 15:54 Chevy bolt uh you look at a Tesla in 15:56 terms of actual equivalent uh gas power 15:59 car the EVS are increasingly reaching 16:01 par in some cases cheaper okay well 16:03 they're only cheaper because of 16:04 government 16:05 subsidies we are definitely using tax 16:09 credits to support americanmade EVS it's 16:12 a hell of a lot cheaper than the 16:14 subsidies that have been going on for 16:16 years for oil and 16:17 gas well you say climate change is real 16:20 but the climate change is four times a 16:22 year and the climate that we're in right 16:24 now is summer as you know I actually got 16:26 a question like this from this which 16:28 left me briefly uh speechless which 16:30 doesn't happen often um yeah no look 16:34 almost every year we're having the 16:35 hottest year ever recorded this is a 16:37 thing you you can't pretend this is not 16:39 a thing and most importantly this is a 16:42 thing that can be addressed in ways that 16:43 actually create jobs like developing a 16:46 made in America EV and EV charger 16:49 industry which is exactly what President 16:51 Biden and this Administration are doing 16:54 there aren't enough uh uh charging 16:56 stations and so range anxiety is 16:57 preventing people from even 16:59 yeah so the truth is there aren't enough 17:01 charging stations that's why we are 17:03 helping to build them the number of 17:04 charging stations uh mainly put in by 17:06 the private sector has roughly doubled 17:07 now uh coming up on 180,000 just since 17:11 Joe Biden took office but we don't think 17:12 the private sector will be able to 17:14 create the entire network because 17:16 there's some places where it's not yet 17:17 profitable which is why we think we need 17:19 to get involved and support the states 17:21 in building out Chargers even though 17:23 about 80% of EV charging happens at home 17:26 it is important to have publicly 17:27 available EV charging we are working on 17:30 a plan to make sure by the end of the 17:31 decade there are more than half a 17:33 million of them including through 17:35 supports for every state and by the way 17:37 every state red blue and purple has 17:39 filed its plan and is already going 17:41 through the process of starting to 17:42 procure those Chargers we've even seen 17:44 the first uh handful actually be 17:45 installed although most of that is going 17:47 to be in the oute but but by the end of 17:48 this decade we'll have it done all right 17:50 well all all good answers but not going 17:53 to change my positions on anything 17:54 because I'm still getting oil and gas 17:55 money so all right uh with that said 17:58 said transportation is the biggest 18:00 source of carbon pollution in the 18:02 country right now so can you talk about 18:03 the update that you have as far as 18:06 electric buses right here in Los Angeles 18:08 Los Angeles we were just at a 18:10 maintenance facility with LA Metro where 18:12 they are updating and putting to work 18:14 new zero emission buses we just had a 18:17 $77 million award to LA to help do that 18:20 but we're doing this for uh facilities 18:22 and and Transit agencies across the 18:24 country from some of the country's 18:25 biggest like LA to rural uh transit in 18:28 in some cases to help them operate own 18:29 and purchase and operate these cleaner 18:31 Vehicles we're also doing it with made 18:33 in America expectations which means 18:34 we're helping send that demand signal to 18:36 build up a domestic electric bus 18:39 industry and what it means is cleaner 18:41 air uh certainly for the workers who uh 18:44 like bus operators who are on these 18:45 buses every day but also just for Riders 18:47 neighborhoods uh and it's also I think 18:50 over the long run going to have a 18:52 reliability benefit because these things 18:54 have fewer moving Parts over time 18:56 they're less liable to break down when 18:57 you take into account clean energy and 19:00 moving in that direction this stuff is 19:01 cheaper it's better for the environment 19:03 it's it's more popular across the board 19:05 it's just a win-win on everything do you 19:06 ever have concessions from from 19:08 Republicans for example when you do do 19:10 these hearings from you know where where 19:12 they kind of acknowledge if not publicly 19:14 behind the scenes that that you know 19:16 that they don't understand why they're 19:18 so opposed to something that across the 19:20 board is just good you know I I really 19:24 have trouble sometimes understanding why 19:27 for example when they they M themselves 19:29 driving Eevee which many of them do 19:31 because they figured out it's it's kind 19:32 of the right answer for them and their 19:34 family that that they still adopt this 19:37 uh this messaging which I just don't 19:39 think is going to age well look I'm I'm 19:40 not claiming that this transition is 19:42 easy uh this is the biggest 19:45 transformation of the Auto industry 19:47 since the Auto industry began but that's 19:50 precisely why we can't let America fall 19:52 behind on it this is happening this is 19:54 happening in the world auto market with 19:55 or without us uh China isn't subsidizing 19:58 EV makers because they're the Chinese 20:01 Communist party is is a huge kind of 20:05 environmentalist you know group of 20:07 environment Buffs they're doing it 20:08 because they understand the the economic 20:10 security and strategy implications of 20:13 trying to dominate that market now the 20:15 Biden Administration is working to 20:16 protect that to to try to keep that at 20:18 Bay while we build up a homegrown Market 20:21 but the point is the decision is not are 20:23 we going to use gas cars forever or use 20:25 EVS the question is are we going to be 20:28 left behind behind as the world moves to 20:30 EVS or are they going to be made in 20:32 America in places like Indiana where I 20:34 grew up uh cooko Indiana Homer Chrysler 20:37 one of the things that got me into 20:38 politics was fighting to stand up for 20:40 Chrysler when there was a big fight over 20:41 whether uh uh it was the right decision 20:44 in the Obama Administration to keep 20:45 Chrysler in business some of those 20:47 facilities are being retooled now that 20:49 employ thousands of people uh to make 20:51 electric vehicles and vehicle components 20:54 seeing the inevitability of this of this 20:56 change from from gas powerered vehicles 20:58 to to electric vehicles and and knowing 21:00 the implications here not not that it's 21:02 going to be like a future where we 21:04 determine whether we're going to have 21:05 gas power vehicles or EVS it's going to 21:07 be EVS that's just the way the world is 21:08 moving and knowing that we can either 21:10 seed control to China or have control 21:12 right here in the United States when you 21:14 have a Republican party whose so much of 21:16 their identity is predicated on their 21:18 their purported opposition to China how 21:20 do they reconcile those two things where 21:22 they are fighting for a fossil fuel 21:26 controlled future which would hand over 21:29 the Reigns of clean energy and clean 21:31 energy manufacturing and EVs and EV 21:33 battery uh creation all to the country 21:35 that they claimed to to to stand against 21:38 the the only explanation I can think of 21:40 is that their Fidelity to oil and gas 21:44 profits in the status quo there is 21:47 stronger than their Fidelity to the idea 21:49 of making sure the US beats China 21:51 economically I just don't know how else 21:53 to explain it yeah I think it's pretty 21:55 pretty simple right there well you know 21:56 so much of our government is marked by 21:58 an inability to cooperate to work 22:00 together and there is really no 22:03 incentive structure more broadly for the 22:05 right to do anything along with the left 22:07 it just doesn't it just doesn't exist in 22:09 today's in today's Republican party and 22:11 yet even despite that here's what uh 22:14 Congressman Dusty Johnson said to you 22:16 thank you madam chair Mr Secretary of 22:17 course there's always going to be a 22:18 certain number of things you and I 22:19 disagree on but I have to start with a 22:21 compliment in a town where so many of 22:24 folks both in my party and your own seem 22:26 to Pedal fear and anger some of them 22:29 almost exclusively uh you bring a far 22:31 more professional and respectful 22:33 approach to your work and the 22:34 communication that I get from you and 22:35 your team I think helps all of us be 22:38 better so uh thank you with that so what 22:40 does it say that even Republicans who 22:43 who largely exist to break government to 22:46 prove that it can't work uh have 22:48 recognized your ability to take your job 22:50 seriously and actually deliver for 22:51 Americans well I I know this can sound 22:53 naive but I really believe in it that if 22:55 you put your head down and do good work 22:57 and engage people in good faith on 22:59 honest terms you can get some credit for 23:01 that not with everybody but Dusty 23:03 Johnson is is an example of a he's a 23:05 very conservative Republican I disagree 23:07 with him on probably uh 95 out of a 100 23:10 things but he's also an honest person 23:12 who uh recognizes that even while we're 23:14 disagreeing we can engage on things that 23:16 are going to make South Dakota better 23:18 off where he's from or that that just 23:20 don't have any ideological veillance to 23:23 them that that we just know are going to 23:25 do some good and so uh you know I do 23:27 believe that that at the very least you 23:29 you can get credit for engaging with 23:31 somebody or their office on honest terms 23:33 and I I found whether dealing with with 23:36 some tough characters in my own party 23:38 back when I was mayor or working across 23:40 the aisle today if you treat 23:44 people with the Assumption for the 23:47 benefit of the doubt that they'll 23:48 respond the way you wish they would 23:50 versus how you fear they might yeah 23:52 sometimes they actually do perfectly put 23:55 we'll leave it there uh secretary budy 23:56 judge thanks so much again thank you no 24:00 [Music]

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