Transcripts For CSPAN DCCC And NRCC Chairs At Texas Tribune Festival 20240713

Hour long event. Welcome all. Im Abby Livingston. Im the chair of the Texas Tribune and im delighted to welcome two of the most pivotal people in the american politics. They have the jobs that are not most well known. To my meet left i have cheri bus tos. Hello. And i have congressman tom emmer and hes the chair of the National Republican committee. It took me a while to understand the acronyms. Theyre not as well known as. N. C. Chairman or d. N. C. Chairman. But these are members of congress who have been elected by their colleagues to basically get the gavel whether that means protect it or take it. And so it is a difficult job. They manage millions of dollars. They decide who gets that money in ad spending and it can be a brutal process if your side is not doing well in the election year. I had one former chairman describe to me what its like during the house floor and tell a colleague im so sorry, i just cut off your Television Ads and youre going to lose reelection. Yall might have heard of a man named rahm emanuel. He leveraged that job to very high levels of the american government. And so i find the job fascinating. But i would like to start off and ill start with congressman bustos. Can you describe to me what this job is . Sure. Hello, everybody. First of all, thanks for being here. I want to thank the Texas Tribune. Im a newspaperwoman, thats my guac background. I forgot to do bios. Were not afraid to talk about ourselves. [laughter] thats what i did. I was a newspaperwoman. I have a great appreciate what Abby Livingston does out in washington. And then i worked in health care very briefly worked in healthcare for another 10 years. Worked in marketing communications, Public Relation first a Health System and nonprofit Health System. And while i was doing that was on the city council which any City Government folks here . No. I think it is a great Training Ground for serving in congress because there is actually no excuse for not getting the job done. Youve got balance the budget every year. Youve got to answer to your neighbors and all that sort of thing. I love the fact that, you know, journalism i think is a great background for pretty much anything you go into, if you know how to write, if you know how to communicate su sippingtly. If you care about people and their stories and what motivates them and what concerns them. I mean, abby ought to go into politics as part of our next her next career. I just think its a great i think its a great background to. Have so that said, i still remember march of 2011. Im sitting at my desk at the Health System and get a call who is with the d triple c. I said what in the heck is the d triple c. And now im running the place. Its the Democratic Campaign committee. Its the political arm of House Democrats. We have two jobs and two jobs only. I happen to be in the majority party. Our job is to hang on to the majority. And job number two is to grow that majority because it is if youre a democrat, which i have been pretty much my whole life, you believe in what we stand for, what we fight for. And and so that is why its not just for political purposes that we grow the majority and hang on to the majority, but because i think it is the right thing for our nation. And so the job is those two things. And as you said that we we work with millions of dollars. It is you know, you race money to make sure that you can get your messaging out to to people here. And i hope we have a chance to talk about texas, because texas is ground zero in 2020. And im very, very excited to talk with you about that. [applause] yes, thank you. Its a very, very exciting state to be in from a democratic perspective. Chairman emmert, can you give us a little bit of your view of the job. Im a family guy. Ive got seven kids aineds was doing the city council stuff, coaching, all of that. You, kground is as i told im not a professional storyteller. I tried cases for the better part of 20 years usually defending people and their businesses in civil courts in the state of minnesota, wisconsin and north dakota. I came to politics late. This job is well, it can be defined this way. The National Republican Congressional Committee is just a name. The business is roughly at 200 million with 80 to 100 in a building in d. C. In a network that spreads across the country that will run 435 campaigns on its way to restore a republican majority in 2021. Thats what it is. All right. So im going to jump to thing everyones talking about and thinking about. Its been a long week. Its been a crazy week at the capital. I was there for the rest of the week. Ill throw it to chairman emmer i know we havent had much time to poll. What is your political read . And what is the advice youre giving your candidates about impeachment right now . What i would say, abby, is this socialist democrat majority, that currently occupies the majority, their hatred for the president is so deep wow. Wow. It is so deep that they cant focus on anything than undoing the 2016 election. They went for three years two years and 32 million to get a report that show nod collusion. Quid pro quo. I hope everybody has read i do too. Please read every word of it. And my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are getting nothing done. This will be the end of the new socialist democrat majority in the house. And its why were going to win next november. So abby, i hope i can i dont even need a question on that. [laughter] so i happen to be one of the 31 democrats who was elected a district that donald trump won. So i am i can tell you positively you know, any kind of socialist label is just doesnt even have any kind of fit whatsoever for the vast majority of democrats in congress. We believe first of all, we believe in democracy. Thats important to note in light of whats happened this last week. You know, i brought the the the transcript from the president s conversation President Trumps conversation with the president of ukraine. And i was going to bring it up here. I know its in the back there. But please do read that. Please do read that. Look, i did not call for any kind of impeachment, impeachment inquiry. I didnt even utter the word that started with i. Please take the time to read it. It will take you 30 minutes to read both the transcript and the whistleblowers report. The president literally is trading defense assets to under mine the 2020 election. And tom, while were up here, i guess im really curious how you defend that conversation the president of the United States had with the president of ukraine . I would love to hear the defense of that. First off, youve completely mischaracterized it. Please read it. When you talk about no socialism democrat party. When you have 150 of your members that want socialized medicine, that want to kick people off of their private Health Insurance and their Employer Sponsored Health plan, when you have 100 members supporting the new green deal which were told by folks on your side is nothing more than redoing the free market economy. Its not about climate. Clearly this is is the new socialist party of america. If youre not willing to fight for it and take it back, you own it. Tom the hatred of this president and his family, the out right hatred of this president and this idea that anything we can do we can do anything to try to undo the 2016 election is the reason i understand pivoting. I was a reporter for 17 years. I understand whi people are trying to evade a question. My question is how do you defend the president of the United States getting on the phone with the president of ukraine saying let me do let me ask you a favor, after the president of ukraine is talking about defense, and then the president talking about the favor being can you dig up dirt on the guy who you think is going to be my opponent in the 2020 president ial election again, you mischaracterized whats in it, cheri. Thats in my red bag back there. If i can read the first full paragraph, i will be happy to read it. Its out there for everybody to see. They should. They absolutely should. You guys are silent its like crickets. It is like crickets. How do you defend the president trading our defense assets so ukraine, the leadership in ukraine digs up dirt on his political opponent . I need the other one too. By the way, unclassified. Can i read this, abby . Very briefly. This is not a litigation. The only thing i would say which is the skilled newspaper reporter, you cant. You have to read the whole memo because this has been the problem on your side. Cherry pick certain cherry pic sentences and take them out of context. Everyone here has access to the internet. Just read. Why is what better . What is the context . Read it. Just read the entire thing. This is not my words. This is not my words. This is the whistleblowers words. I think you should read the one from the president not the whistleblower. Im happy to do that. Why are you reading the whistleblower . I hope you read the whole thing. This is the president of ukraine saying i would also like to thank you this is his conversation with President Trump on the phone word for word. I would also like to thank you for your great support in the area of defense. Were ready to continue to cooperate for the next step specifically. Were ready to buy more javelins. This is the Defense System from the United States for defense purposes. The president of the United States. First words, i would like you to do us a favor though thats the first words out of his mouth. And he goes on to talk about the mueller report. He talks about he goes on to talk about mr. Giuliani just recently and we are hoping very much that mr. Giuliani will travel to ukraine. You will meet once he comes to ukraine. And then he goes on to say, the other thing theres a lot to talk about bidens son. That biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that. So whatever you can do with the attorney general would be great. I mean, look, these are the president s words. And again, i would just ask you, chairman emmer of the nrc, where are the republicans calling out for full and complete transparency of the president of the United States getting on the phone saying this to the president of ukraine . Now, youve already taken out of context the military discussion because it was about again, if you would like me to finish i would be happy to. You can yell over the top of me. You can characterize specific sense sentences. It talks about the fact that germany hasnt been paying the fair share. They talk about the great relationships that these two countries have. Then they move to an issue by the way i thought you were very concerned about and that is ukrainian med knowingly the u. S. Elections an russian meddling. You spent 32 million trying to go through all of these details and when there was nothing there, now, youre trying to make up facts that dont exist in this. Yes, you absolutely are. Well, you are. This is this is the last thing if you study our history. This is the last thing you should be doing. The American Public know theres an election 13 months from now. Thats where it should be handled. The fact that socialist democrats hates this president and his family so much that they want to undo the will of the people in 2016, its going to cost you at the ballot box in november of 2020. All right. Lets move on. [laughter] and i think this is going to be almost as controversial. Ill start with chairman emmer. How many seatses are in play at the u. S. House level . Theres one that will be competitive. Texas is texas is not in play. Texas is going to stay red. Well probably win back two of the seats that we lost. And you know, youve got to youve got a state that donald trump won by nine points. Youve got 550,000 trump voters that didnt show up last fall but showed up before. But more importantly, i wish my colleague in her conference good luck trying to sell the socialist agenda in this state. Kicking people off their health care plans, making private insurance illegal, ending eating hamburgers. And by the way ending fossil fuel youre going to stop all production of oil, that makes a lot of sense in the state of texas. Its not going to sell well. Youre referring for medicare for all sorry, sir well have audience q a. It is funny. I dont blame you for laughing. Youre referring for med care for all and the greenbay new deal. Thats just the beginning. Those are the easiest ones. Congresswoman bustos. Do i need to talk in this or is this fine . This is fine . I think you should have asked the chairman a little bit differently. I think you should have asked me how many seats are you going to lose and ask me how many seats are you going to win . We will hang on to lizy fletcher and Collin Allred two seats that we flipped in 2018, austin members. Theyre off to a great start. Were going to play in six additional seats. And the word of the day since were sitting in austin, texas is texativ. What does it mean . It means that already on the other side of the aisle there have been 18 members of the republican members of the u. S. House of representatives who have announced theyre going to retire. Five of them are in texas. And so anybody who studies politics knows that when theres an open seat, youve got to youve got a better shot at picking that up. So we believe that we can play in six of the seats. If we want to call one out right now, it would be in the farthest Southwest Corner of texas where will herd who was viewed as by the way, the rising star in the texas or in the republican u. S. House of representatives and will herd announced that he couldnt take it anymore and is retiring. Weve got Gino Ortiz Jones is a candidate that lost by under 1,000 votes and is running again. Is one of the best fundraisers if you want to look at that as a sign of strevpkt. Is one of the best fundraisers among all of the candidates. We believe we will play in six additional districts on top of the ones we already flipped. Chairman, i asked this from some of your candidates yesterday. When i talked on the phone to republican operatives and we go through the numbers, some of them are pretty close. Michael mccall race. Some of them i didnt see coming. And these opener actives will say just the beto effect. Without beto in the mix. There arent going to be the coattails. Whats your response to that . This is a ptial cycle. And all of the districts that i just talked about where we will play, trump is under water in every single one of them. And there will be is that your internal polling saying that . It is polling in general. Youve got internal polling. Youve got external polling. It is polling that shows that trump is under water. So lets look at texas. Is everybody whos from texas . Ok. So just about everybody. So you know your own politics here. Youve got changing demographics that are pointing in the way of democrats. Youve got a more suburban state in the key area where is were looking at pick up these districts. Its becoming more and more suburban and more and more diverse and it is more college educated. So all three of those things point in the direction of ben fitting democrats. On top of that in the Six Districts where we will be playing, the republicans won those by five points or fewer. So thats the science part of it. So you know, theres always a science part of politics and theres the art part of politics. And the art part of it is making sure you have great candidates. And so so we are you know, in fact, earlier today, i met with several candidate who are looking at running and some of whom have announced that theyre running. Thats the combination. And you look at somebodys work ethic. Whats their background . Do they enup having end up having the resources to win . If i could have one part of or texas strategy. E texative is not just happening. Weve been in text for many months now. We identified as soon as the 2016 election was over and saw that we flipped these two seats and came so close in the six others that we were going to this was going to be ground zero for us. So we have had a headquarters opened for many months now in texas. We have some in houston, dallas and san antonio. We have people all over the state. So we are already communicating with the key voters that we want to make sure that we bring in and we can turn out to vote in 2020. Strategic a very methodical step by step process that we think will lead to some success in 2020. Mr. Chairman, whats your response strategically to what she just laid out . Well, retirements is nothing new. The difference between republicans and democrats in the u. S. House is that in the democrat conference the way you advance you merely have to outlive the person next to you. On the republican side, people come in, they move up the ladder. Their termlimited with chairmanships and they go back to the private sector. The seats that were brought up earlier, they have a republican advantage on average of 14 points. I love the the narrative that were trying to create that somehow this is where were going to invest all the money. Ive got polling. Polling thats been published. I think politico put it out a couple of weeks ago. Lizy fletcher is already down by two points in houston. And were seeing that all over because again the socialist democrat agenda, this radical socialism that theyre pushing for the people in the suburbs it doesnt fly. This is what youre going to hear between now and 2020. Thats their only line that theyve got. Thats it. It doesnt fly. And heres the other thing. I think its great if the strategy is invest all our money in a state called texas where were not going to be successful because weve got 55 seats and weve targeted 31 of those seats donald trump won just two years ago, in fact, with democrats in there. Eight of those he won by more than double digits or won by double digits. What they should be doing if they were going to try to protect the house is move to a more moderate approach in terms of their agenda instead of this radical left wing government take over agenda and they should focus in areas they want to defend instead of going after texas which is going to stay republican. Could we talk about this radical agenda that brings down the cost of healthcare . Can we talk about the bill that allows medicare to negotiate the prices of the top 250 Prescription Drugs . Make sure that seniors dont have to pay more than 2,000 out of pocket. That makes sure that the prices that were paying as americans nt so far outweigh what our neighboring countries are paying that make sure that if theres an increase in Prescription Drug prices that it cant exceed the cost of living, the inflation rate and if it does the money has to go into the National Institute of health that is so radical. Can we talk about thank you. Can we talk about making sure that if you are bound and determined to be a killer that you have to go through a criminal background check in order to buy a weapon . Can we talk about all of the bills that we passed in bipartisan in the u. S. House of representatives that we sent over to the senate that Mitch Mcconnell just leaves in his bottom drawer . That is so radical that we want to bring down the cost of health care and we want to bring peoples wages up. So radical. So i, first off, lets be clear that the new socialist majority that is in the democrat conference they want to eliminate obamacare. They want to make sure that private insurance is no longer. Thats not whos they . Listen, if you read ocasiocortezs tweets today youll know what your speaker youre talking about one member of the u. S. House of representatives. Its 150 that want this government takeover. I try to respect and i allow you i believe in context. Im putting it in context. We have a new socialist democrat majority in the house that has passed nothing. They will not work with people in the house with their colleagues in the house. They wont work with their colleagues in the senate. And they wont work with this president s because this president because they hate him so much. Come on. You can go look at the votes. They have passed only things they want with their radical agenda. They do have things they want to talk about but they arent working with anybody in congress. By the way, thats because theyre so focused on undoing the 2016 election. And now they want to move to this impeachment process. This is why theyre going to lose their majority in 2020. Its an inquiry, first of all. And the other thing is every single one of the 10 bills that weve passed have been passed in bipartisan fashion. All 10 of them have been passed. Mr. Emmer, the night will herd announced his retirement, my phone did not stop buzzing until about 2 00. And its operatives in texas, mostly republicans. It was one of the most chaotic nights ive had in my career. I have a hard time articulating it. Why was that a big deal . First, will defies gravity. Will does things that most people havent done in a lifetime. Will at his young age has accomplished things most people will never see. Second, he was a valuable member of our team. I think thats probably why. Hes one of our young up and comers that decided he didnt say ive had enough. He said to me, ive got an opportunity ill tell you what that is later. Its time for me to do something different. Im going to go back to the private sector. Great. Our job is to recruit the best candidates across the country. We have over 100 women running across the country. We have almost 100 veterans. 100 minority candidates running across the country. Thats what you do. We need more will herds at the federal level. I have a question and i want one answer from both of yall. Who is the most vulnerable member of the texas delegation from your offices party . , chairman with you bustos. Why doan we say of the six that were taking a look at, so its texas 10, 21, 22, 23, 24, and 31. Yeah. I think im right on all those. [inaudible] good job i dont want to say who is the most vulnerable. Were going to play in all six of those. Three of them now are open seats. And you know, i probably would have said will herd in the fact that he was one of only three republicans in the entire country serving in a district that Hillary Clinton won. And he only won the seat by less than 1,000 votes. So that was and youve got gina ortizjones run if the second time. When i see these candidates run for the second time, you think theyre starting off where they left off the last cycle. And you saw how they grew as companies. That as candidates. I think well do well. Whos the most vulnerable one . Henry claire. Hes the most vulnerable democrats. They have socialist democrats. Henry cuellar. Ohalloran. Des if asio. You get primaries from the far left every single day. D i would say, Henry Cuellar is more of my grandfathers democrat hes the most vulnerable. I think henry is going to be fine. He knows his district inside and out. He listens to people. He is all over people know who he is. They like him. They respect him. He is very partisan. I dont know where hes on the ranking of folks who work to. But he believes in working to and working hard for people. Hes smart. Hes a good family man. I think Henry Cuellar is going to be fine. Im not saying this was all across the board but there were more of a handful of people who say i dont know a republican besides will he, rd can hold that district. Can a republican besides will hold that district . This is a narrative that someone would like to start. The index is our plus one. We have a great candidate named gonzalez who is getting into the race that i think is going to do very well. And there are others. We concede no race in this state. And it will stay republican. We will hold these seats. Ill come back to you, chairman bustos. Can you explain the position and ill ask Congress Emmer this of the dccc on primaries. Do yall pick sides when youve got competitive districts . Well, i think its up to the candidates who have announced and are running in these districts to make sure they can show they can win. My district is in northwestern, illinois. I cover the entire northwestern corner of the state. Im going to add a little perspective. Hopefully this will make sense in my answer. We have 118 congressmen in illinois. 13 are democrats. And five are republicans. 1213 democrats are in chicagoland. And im 13th. So im whats call the down stater. S the mostly its, you know, its a republican area. Again, donald trump won won my district. And and when when i was First Run Television a republican i defeated to get to congress. It was a crowded primary. There were six people in the primary. A the First Quarter that i was in, i outraised a all five of my opponents combined. So what that that sent a message that first of all, shes got a team put together that know what is theyre doing. Shes working hard, because you cant raise resources as a brand new candidate, and i did not have a big political base, without working very hard. So what happened after that First Quarter is some of those opponents started dropping out. By the end of the second quarter, i outraised everybody again, they started dropping out further. By the time i had my primary, i had two very weak opponents i barely had to spend anything and had all the resources i needed to defeat a republican in the yen election. The reason i share that is because what we look at as the political arm of House Democrats is who can make it happen. We want to make sure the person coming out of the primary can win the general. Its up to the voters. But you know, how you demonstrate your strength is. This do you have the resources . So much of this is about mistake avoidance. Dont make mistakes that are deadly. Build a great team. Make sure that your views are being shared with the people in your in the district that you represent and that they understand that, you know, youre one of them, so to speak. All those things just have to come together. Mr. Emmer . The National Republican Congressional Committee does not play in any primary. One of my complaints when i became chair, i believe we republicans had become too washington centric. I think the people whether we agree or disagree, i think the people that rive live in the area that are looking for their representative, they know best what they want representing them. So its about making sure that anybody who wants to run, which i think this is the issue in the Republican Party, weve got an incredibly diverse Grass Roots Party across this country. And its really important that we let everyone know at the grass roots level that we want you to run. That we want you to step into the arena and have a voice and represent this country and do good things. Thats why i believe were having so much success with the people were attracting. Weve got across the country, today, we have more people running as republicans for the u. S. House of representatives than at any other time in modern history during this pint in the cycle. Were over 630 candidates filed and running already across the country. The last time this includes even 2009, the last time that the 400 and pped, it was something. The intensity is out there i think people our job is to make sure we help them. No matter who they are. We dont pick. Well let the people out here pick who they think best reflect theirs voice and best will reflect their values in washington, d. C. Our job if youre going to run as a republican is to give you the tools you might need communication training, you might need precinct information or data. Theres other things you may need. Its having a big impact in terms of our ability to recruit and attract people. I think part of the problem, abbey is that if you look at the so many of the policies of the Republican Party, theyre so out of sync with the diverse nature of our nation. U could literally the democrats in the u. S. House of representatives are literally like a mirror image of america. With the makeup of our women. We have 89 women who are members of House Democrats. Or 13 republicans. And two of those 13 women have announced theyre retiring. One is our first baseman on our congressional womens Softball Team and we play against abby, by the way. And the other was the woman who was tasked by House Republicans to lead recruitment. And it got to a point where she has announced that as chair of recruitment, shes not running for reelection herself. I think that makes it kind of hard to recruit awesome women to want to join the republican conference. But we literally are a mirror image. If you look at the makeup of our congressional hispanic caucus, our congressional black caucus, our asian caucus, our equality caucus, our womens caucus. We are a majority minority caucus. And im very proud of that. It is a very, very different story if you look across the aisle. Very different. I want you to respond to that but i want to put it in a different way. In 2014, i covered very closely both committees at another publication. Im very defensive of the Republican Party when people criticize them about diversity. Chairman prix bus was doing a great deal to bring different voices into the g. O. P. And so did chairman walden as much as he could. But the handsoff primary attitude meant there were a lot of women who ran for office in 2014 and lost their primaries. I think mia love was one of the few who got through. It was much more difficult than i expected. What is the thought process at the nrcc level of bring manager women and minority into the party . Thats my commitment. Thats number onism told you, were weve got 630something people already running. Out of those, the people that weve recruited, youve got over 100 women. Almost 100 veterans. Almost 100 people from different minority communities. Susan brooks, who is our recruitment chair, shes actually the perfect person that you want to do this. Because you dont want people going to washington, d. C. And making it their home forever. You want them to go, serve, make a difference and then let somebody else from home go out there and do that job. Most people when they leave washington, d. C. All you ever hear from them this place is broken. This place is horrible. I dont ever want to see washington, d. C. Again. The people are terrible. Susan brooks is leafing, you know what shes saying . Its an honor to serve. Aye enjoyed my time. Ive reached a point in my life, ive done more than a decade of public servicing, my daughter has just moved to a different stating, my son is in a different state, i want to do some more family stuff now and i want to turn it over to the next person. When shes talking to our recruits shes doing it in the right way. This is an honor to serve. If youre a woman and you have a family or youre doing other thing, place works for you. Ill show you how. Were going to be very successful in changing this. The message im going to tell you, abby is going to to resonate. What the other side offers with this move to socialism, its the right to selfdetermine. Its the right for everyone to make the decisions that impact themselves and their families the most versus the other side which is government is going to tell you what you can have. Government is going to give you your health care and tell you what that consists of. Government will tell you how and where you can educate your children. Government will set what you can drive and where you can live. Versus freedom. I can guarantee that when people in the suburbs, educated, not educated, walk into that ballot booth next year and they realize that this socialist democrat majority has solely been focused on atabbing the president rather than impacting their lives in a positive way they will lose their majority. You are seeing the republican playbook right here in front of you in live time, just so you know. It is this label that does not make any sense. Again, weve got 31 democrats who serve in trump districts. I doubt very highly that they have a socialist bone in their body other than to make sure that people are doing ok that people have a chance to succeed. My father, who was a newspaper reporter also, he would read seven newspapers every day. Just absolutely avid reader. He would be my first phone call every day. Hed say you should call this person, think about this piece of legislation. He would end most of my phone calls by say, i love you, i respect you, and help the helpless. Im very proud of the fact that as a democrat we believe there are people who need a little help. We dont believe that Everybody Needs to be out there without any kind of help whatsoever. We did not agree with this tax bill that gave 83 of the benefits to the richest 1 of the country. We dont believe in that. Im not one of these that wants to divide, but i do know that weve got to be fair in this. Weve got to look at rebuilding our country. Chairman emmer, again, we passed 10 bills to bring down the cost of health care. We are in the middle of negotiating and in an infrastructure bill and will pass that. We just introduced a major piece of legislation that helps people afford their insulin and makes sure that if you are diabetic you can actually afford the medicine you need to stay alive. We passed whats called h. R. 1, the for the people act that by the way, that gets dark money out of politic, it would require president ial candidates candidates to release tax returns that would make sure Government Works for people instead of just for the folks at the top. Weve gotten all kinds of things done. This label that you keep repeating over and over and over again, i think were going to be sick and tired of it by the time november of 2020 rolls around. It is not true. It is fake. Its not going to stick. [applause] congresswoman bustos, you had a pretty rough summer. There was some my son got married. I was excited about that so there were some complaints amongst staff at the dccc about diversity incorporated in the leadership. Can you give us your side of the story and what has changed since those reports. Sure. I dont know if id even characterize it as my side of the story. It is look. We had a structural problem. That we needed to fix. And i recognized that. I take ownership of that. I acknowledge my shortcomings in not addressing it before it got to the point where frankly it got bigger than i ever would have hoped. But we are fixing it. And we are doing it in a way that i think is respectful to our members of congress, our staff internally, the folks who support the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and we ended up with new executive director who knows politics inside and out. Is from texas. Her name is lucinda gwynn. Lieu sin dark i dont know if you like the tv camera, she is the first latina in the history of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee to serve as executive director. She is at emilys list last cycle. Talk about somebody who understands success, take a look at the women elected last cycle, lucinda had a hand in over one of those races. Im excited that we had an issue that we addressed. You know, i think anybody who runs a Large Organization, and ours will end up being about a quarter billion Dollar Organization by the time november of 2020 rolls around, well have somewhere around 250ish staff. I think when you run a Large Organization you hit a bump in the road. We hit a bump, we addressed it, were moving on and well be stronger for it. Im going to throw a question that i didnt think of until yesterday at both of you. I had a young friend running for office. He doesnt know how to do it. He doesnt hes trying to get his bearings. As a reporter i cant give him advice. When you get a call, ill start with you, chairman emmer from a candidate. If theres someone who wants to run for state leg or congress, what do you tell them to do . First i ask them if theyre crazy. I want to go back to Something Else before we leave it. There was a lot of talk about bills getting passed. First off, if the new socialist democrats want to run on h. R. 1 oh, please, tom. If they want to run on this i wish them all the best. Because it was giving them 5 million for their own campaigns. Their federal campaigns. I can guarantee you because ive seen the polling, it doesnt end well. If thats what theyre going to claim is their major accomplishment, it is a mistake. Second, you talk about passing bills but the reality is, this majority will not work with their colleagues in the senate and refuses to work with this president. So the question is, what major think of substance have you done . Its nothing. At the end of the day that is going to spell disaster for this majority. Thats why its going to flip. Anybody who wants to run, please, call. Well sit down with you. Well sit down with you and well ask you question, why do you want to run . There are two kinds of people ive been told in my lifetime that like to run for office. Those who want to be somebody and those who want to do something. For me, i think we got far too many of the former, not enough of the latter. If there are people out there who really want to make a difference and you think you can, i really dent care, realistically, i told you my grandfather was a proud democrat. And we used to have this debate on a regular basis my grandfather once told me, i couldnt be catholic and be a republican. Because he told me, he was the only kind, loving, compassionate resident of his community because he was the only democrat. I love the man. We had great debates. But our debates were the right of an individual to selfdetermine versus the size and scope of government and where that line is. Its changed. You can say that not everybody on the other side of the aisle agrees with the complete government takeover of the economy, of health care, of you name it. I understand that. But far too many doo and far too few are fighting. So if you believe in the right to selfdetermine if you believe that people should have choices, that not only improve their own live bus help everybody around them, come see us. Were happy to talk to you about how you do this. We dont pick people for races. They step into the agree rhee in a and if they are the right people, the people that vote for them will select them and well work with them. So thats how we handle them. What i would tell your friend is he a democrat or republican . Republican. Ok, then i wouldnt tell him this but if he were a democrat what i would say to him is, we have all kinds of programs all over the country that train people on the fundamentals of running for office. And in fact, years ago, i am in my fourth term. Susan brooks who is leaving, shes in her fourth time. She served in congress for all of, less than seven years right now. I think that argument that, you know, its like serving too long and ready to move on is interesting. Ill tell her you dont think she should leave. Sure, go ahead. Thats fine. Ut anyway. I started a program that we call build a bench. It was very apparent to me that we needed more younger people. To run in offices at all levels. We needed more people of color to run. And we needed more women to run. Because when i look around at the elected bodies all over this country, thats where were lacking. So i created a program called build the bench. Im a former college athlete. I played College Basketball and volleyball, division iii, not like i was an awesome athlete or anything. But i look at it as, anybody here play basketball ever . Ok. So you got five people on the court, right . And what happens when somebody fouls out . You got to go to the bench. What happens when somebody gets injured . Got to go to the bench. What happens when somebody is tired . Got to go to the bench and so, i kind of use my own sports analogy to say, we need to build a stronger bench. So i recruit people, when i say recruit, if somebody has interest in running as a democrat in the state of illinois we do these boot camp we do them about every other month to every three months. I pay for all of it out of my campaign. It costs them nothing. I never want somebodys income to be an impediment for them getting involved in politics. We train them in the fundamentals. I think its four things, look at what do you need to understand if you run for office, it is messaging. Grass roots organizing. S a raising money. Because youve got to have the resources. And its making sure that, you know, youre able to put all of it together. That you know the fundamentals of putting those things together. People walk away from our training and know that whare what theyre doing. Theres another program, illinois Womens Institute for leadership, senator durbins wife funned it several years ago. Its an allyear program, you spend friday, saturday and sunday somewhere in the state of illinois and learn how to run, you learn how to win. We have all kinds of these programs as democrats. In 3re9ity much every state in the country. In pretty much every state in the country. What id tell your friend is if he wanted to be a democrat wed be here to help him. Ill ask one more question, if you could keep your answers short so we can get to q a. I wear pearls. I clutch them a lot in washington. Your roles are in leadership. What kind of onus do you feel in studying the tone to your staff and to your colleagues and how you communicate with each other internally and across the aisle . Ill start with you, chairman bustos and then to chairman emmer. So like demeanor, from a demeanor perspective . Yeah, i mean, im not going to get into examples in the last week but ive seen some eyeopening stuff on both sides of the aisle that i was like, we didnt do that two years ago. Ill tell you, i would draw the line, at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, i said this from day one and this applies to how i run my own campaigns. I dent get personal. I d not get personal. You can look at every race ive ever run going back to my city council days, so going back to 2006 when i first filed. And i dont get personal. I dont talk about peoples wives. I dont talk about peoples children. I dont talk about if somebody is in marriage counseling. I dont talk about those kinds of things. You could talk about somebodys voting record. And i think all of that is fair game. But i dont believe in getting personal. This week, its just like so crossed the line. So crossed the line that chairman emmer at the republican Congressional Committee, the nrcc, went after the wife of a member of congress because she put on her social media about marriage counseling. And took the nerve to take the impeachment inquiry and ask the question whether this spouse and her husband who is a member of congress would be talking about the impeachment inquiry while theyre in marriage counseling. That is you talk about crossing a line. So what my message is, dont get personal. We dont need to get personal. Weve got plenty we can talk about when you look at voting records. Plenty. Weve got plenty we can talk about about our own accomplishments. Look, i come from a trump district. Youve got to understand. If youre a democrat in a trump district, and i won by 24 points in a trump district, the biggest margin of any democrat in the country in a trump district. You cannot succeed politically if you go low all the time. Ill just play devils advocate, i published a story a week and a half ago where a democrat in my delegation called a republican a name i cant use in front of my nephew. Is that you asked how i handle it. Im running the political arm of House Democrats, i said in my first talk with staff at the dccc, i dont believe in getting personal. I dont believe in getting personal. I believe in there is, again, theres plenty to be critical of when you look at their voting records. Plenty. I think we will be successful because our views, our values, making sure that people have access to Affordable Health care, making sure we are doing what we can to bring up peoples wage we believe in equal pay for equal work, we believe that no matter what color you are, what background you come from, what your zip code is, people should have an opportunity to advance in their life. We believe in all that. I think our values are very much in sync with what most people want for their families. And so from where i sit, i dont believe in getting personal. I believe in focusing on what we are accomplishing. And i believe its fair game to talk about someones voting record. Chairman emmer, where are you on this . First off, the thing that my colleague is talking about, those that was published in a newspaper and thats where it was taken from. So so its fine for you to amplify that . If youd like me to finish, i would. Go ahead. Defend it. So first off that was already published. So if someones got a problem with the publisher of the statement, that i think is where that should go. Second if theres a commitment now from my colleague after, i know what youre saying today but what you did a week and a half ago to another member of the texas delegation, whose family, spouse and family did not inject themselves into a campaign an get published in a local newspaper, you went after the spouse and the children and they werent involved at all in the campaign process. Can you elaborate . I have no idea what youre talking about. No, tom you should have better control over dont accuse me you already accused me. Does anybody want to call up their tweet that criticized no, were not doing that got to get to q and a. Do not bring that up. Give me facts. Give me facts. We will always be honest. Give me facts. What did i do . I told you. A member of the texas delegation, you and your people went after his wife and children. Who . Who . You can look it up. Im giving you the pportunity to expose this. We have five minutes for audience q and a. Lets start. I will remind everyone, this is the state of texas, our motto is friends. These are both nice midwest people. Lets start with the woman right ere. I have an observation more than a question. Which is that i see republicans are really good at labeling and ive heard a lot of this radical socialism. Radical socialism mean mis27yearold daughter who work farce Small Company that does not offer private Health Insurance, means she can get Health Insurance, then i embrace that label. I think its great. Bring it on. Bring on the socialism. Thats your right. Thatll be the choice in 2020. Because at the end of the day, in order to do what youre talking about, one, you have to get rid of all private insurance options. Two, you have to get rid of employersponsored health care. And once you do that, then you only have one choice and that is the government program, whatever they offer. Im going to suggest to you, you may like that, but i believe that when people go in and cast their ballots next fall, theyre going to say we want to have the choices, we want to make the choices, were not turning that over to our government. Obamacare, the republicans wanting to take it away, she has nothing. Small employers do not offer Health Insurance. The radical socialists want to eliminate obamacare. How about this gentleman in the back. I think it was your side of the aisle that wanted to repeal and replace and had no replacement . Actually, we had a great plan. Where is it . What would have happened. You havent offered a thing. Tom what we should have done. What we should do, id love to work with my colleagues. Lets restore the states ability to put the programs together necessary and most appropriate for their demographics. For their population. Lets restore the states ability to do that. Before obamacare, minnesotans, 94 , were insured under some form of coverage. By the way, the 6 that werent had access. You just couldnt force them to take whatever it is. We can do better in our state than letting the federal government make the decision for us. Lets move on to the next question. I guess my question is, im observing and thinking about 2020 and i just get the feeling as im sitting here, especially at the trib fest that kind of prides itself on bipartisan, nonpartisan dialogue that you guys are kind of an illustration f the problem. And heres what i mean by that. That especially congress at the National Level is increasingly a product of redistricting which is polarizing everything. And its trickling dun to our states. And its trickling dun to our cities. And the polarization just continues. And will hurd is sort of held up at this as this moderate and yet he was the vulnerable one. So when youre picking off the people that are willing to reach across the aisle, theres no relationship between you two. At all. Nd thats the problem. When will hurd is the vulnerable one and there are no relationships anymore, ultimately thats how you get rid of misunderstanding, is relationships and dialogue and i just dont see that. And whenever we have these redistricting rounds and were going another one is coming up around the corner, its just going to get more polarized. You get the safe seats and people that are happy sitting on the edges, spouting off their stuff because they know hey, im safe. And you know, i dont want to make a false equivalency here, ive got my own political opinions, you know, in terms of democrat and republican, but just the dysfunction. Its almost like i came into this session and its just what the heck . Its been a great weekend, though. [applause] i would just say we have two very different goals obviously. Im very passionate about making sure that democrats hang on to the u. S. House of representatives. Because right now we are the only firewall. That is it in washington, d. C. That is making sure that the president cant continue to act on his worst impulses and we have seen this week how bad those impulses are. So i am very, very passionate about it. I have a very bipartisan record, theres a list of people who are, you know from the least bipartisan to the most bipartisan, as the head of the political arm of House Democrats ive got a very good ranking on being bipartisan. Again, i come from a swing district. As part of our for the people act, eh. R. 1 that chairman emem chairman emmer was criticize, we call for redistricting in a way that offers balance. That offers fairness. I dont believe in carving out little sections so this district can be completly republican an this district can be completely democrat. I dont believe in that. I think if we had more sing districts like the one i come from as a truly swing district if im too crazy this way or too crazy this way i cannot be successful. I believe in what youre talking about. But i believe very, very strongly in the importance of elect manager democrats. Youre right, we do come from very, very different perspectives. But you should have an honest debate. What my colleague just said, cheri is talking about, we proposed a great solution for redistricting. I disagree. I think the state of texas should decide what their dicts look like. If you dont like the way it works, talk to your Texas Legislature and the governor. You shouldnt turn that over to the federal government. Thats an honest disagreement. We should have robust and healthy debate in the public square. People should wok it. But at the end of the day its not personal. Were both american. We want the same things at the end of the day nor country we just have a little different way of getting there. Thats all the time we have. I think everyone i thank everyone for coming out. I want to these guys took out of the time from the end of the quarter, which is big for fundraising. I am grateful. You guys have a great city. Thank you so much. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [indistinct conversation] campaign 2020. Watch our live coverage of the president ial candidates on the campaign trail, and make up your own mind. Yourns campaign 2020, unfiltered view of politics. Washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Tuesday morning, we will discuss has democrats impeachment inquiry of President Trump with a professor at george mason university. On, the new documentary mohammad bin salman, the crown prince of saudi arabia. Join the discussion