Break that down for me about how you feel about the save act.

Well, the SAVE Act is voter suppression.

It makes it harder for people to vote.

It makes it harder for people who are citizens.

Citizens are the only ones who should be voting in our federal elections.

And every citizen should be able to easily and conveniently vote, know their vote will be counted, and be able to trust the tally of the vote reflecting the will of the people.

What the Republicans are trying to do is make it harder.

What do you think that says about the trajectory of the Democratic Party?

How do you feel about that, especially as a member of the Democratic Israel Working Group?

Yeah, I have concerns.

Before I talk about that, let me just talk about, you know, I chair the Abraham Accords Caucus.

What my vision is, you know, the Middle East, Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.

I think we need to commit and remain committed to Israel as a democratic Jewish state living in the Middle East in peace and security with its its neighbors.

Our relationship with Israel, our alliance with Israel benefits both countries.

It benefits from a national security standpoint, but also the research we do between our two countries on health care, as an example.

So to start off this part of the conversation, what are your thoughts on where we're at right now with Iran?

Has your position on Israel shifted at all since October 7th or at any point in your political career? And, and if so, can you tell us how?

So my position hasn't changed because I've always been committed to promoting peace between Israelis and Palestinians and finding a path where both can live together, which I believe ultimately is two states, a Jewish democratic state of Israel and a Palestinian state living side by side.

My frustration with the current Israeli government has grown and continues to grow.

Every conversation I have, uh, with, uh, whether it's the, uh, US ambassador to Israel, and I've had the privilege of working with many, uh, or my meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu, who I've had engagement with the Prime Minister going back now for almost 30 years.

But in the last several years, every single conversation I have with him talks about the need to address settler violence, the need to get humanitarian aid.

Um, one of the things that I am proud and will say loudly and proudly is that immediately after October 7th, as the war began, my team, we worked hard to push for humanitarian aid into Gaza to do everything we could to make sure that the civilians who are always caught in the middle of any war wouldn't suffer more than th- they did, and, uh, and the suffering was h- horrific.

Um, and I did challenge Israel when they made what I'll call ill-conceived, ill-advised, in some cases illegal decisions to deprive, uh, humanitarian relief into Gaza.

They, they look at what's happened since October 7th, and they feel deeply pessimistic about the possibility for peace.

As the US now marks its 250th anniversary, I'm curious to get your thoughts or reflections on what do you think the founders would say about where the country is today, and do you think it's evolved in the way they had hoped and anticipated?

That's a great question.

I- we've been thinking about it a lot as we celebrate the 250th and the American promise, the American dream.

I think as we look back at history, and I look at this not as a historian, but, you know, my background was business and engineering, but look back at history, founders were far from perfect in a moment that was, as you mentioned, h- now we're in this moment of profound change.

The world in, in 1776 was also going through profound change, and I think that contributed to the mindset of the founders.

They had worries about tyranny.

They had worries about taxation without representation.

Just curious as to where you see the US sitting now when it comes to global affairs and, and international relations.

Give me your sense of this increasingly visible and sometimes fractious conversation within the House Democratic caucus to be, if you get the majority, even if you don't, they're going to come anyway, Democratic socialists and more mainstream Democrats as you identify yourself.

Yeah, I think there is a tension.

We saw it.

And so Mamdani endorsed three candidates in New York City, very specific, close to each other in New York City.

What hasn't got as much attention in a little further upstate New York, Kate Conley won.

She was on this program last night.

I know that.

Absolutely.

Where do you see that in the future? There's obviously been a lot of scrutiny, but do you feel that to offset some other priorities, do you think that that could be dropped into a must-pass bill?

So what we need to get away from is the Rob Peter to pay Paul mentality.

There we go again, right, Peter? It's just, and away from who was the last person in the room to make the case.

I'm actually going to use my, so I had foot reconstruction surgery.

It was major surgery that at the end of the day is probably going to run up a bill of $100,000, of which about $2,500 is coming to me as my bill is what we think it so far is.

I can't tell you what's involved in that, but I now have an opportunity to dig deep and see.

And I was overnight in the hospital, and then going back and forth, there'll be physical therapy.

Where will the Israeli-U.S. relationship be in 10 years? What do you think it's going to look like?

Now, couple stars out tonight, your big names, but everyone stepped up tonight, didn't they?

Yeah, 100%.

We had, um, Brian on debut and, um, found out late for him.

But yeah, it's awesome when you got someone on debut to, you got someone to play for.

Um, and especially you wanna, wanna make it special for him and get a win, and I thought we did that tonight for him, and I thought he was outstanding.

It's becoming a habit now for you guys.

Yeah.

Um, first one for the club four in a row.

Yeah, a couple of stars out tonight, your big names, but everyone stepped up tonight, didn't they?

Yeah, 100%.

We had, um, Brian on debut and, um, found out late for him, but yeah, it's awesome when you got someone on debut to, you got someone to play for.

Um, and especially you wanna, you wanna make it special for him and get a win, and I thought we did that tonight for him, and I thought he was outstanding.

It's becoming a habit now for you guys.

Yeah.

Um, first one for the club four in a row.

You know, um, that's what we're trying to do is just week by week, and I think we're building very nicely.

Based on what you've seen in Congress and what you've been briefed on, do you share those same concerns?

concerns?I share those and, and more concerns, and I'll, I'll touch on it in, in a couple of, of ways.

Uh, first, the, the war itself.

Uh, this is not something that, uh, hasn't been considered for a long time.

Uh, even during the Obama administration there was talk of military action to, uh, ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon, and we need to ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon, address their ballistic missiles, address their, uh, sponsorship of terrorism around the region and around the world.

Uh, I think what we're seeing is the miscalculations by the Trump administration, the failure to anticipate Iran's stated intentions.

This is nothing new.

Is Congress going to look into that, um, especially if Democrats take over in November?

Did you get a call? Did any of your Democratic colleagues receive a briefing this morning?

I didn't, I don't know of any of my colleagues who have gone on briefing.

I've seen statements from folks like Jim Himes, who is the ranking member on intelligence, Mark Warner in the Senate, who've all said that they had not heard anything.

And Joe, this is a critical moment for our country.

Well, let me go back first to Maduro.

Maduro is a bad actor who deserves to face justice.

He stole an election in 2024, installed himself as president this time last year.

And then he said, not only would the US be using that oil to pay for, I'm assuming its administration of Venezuela, but would also be reimbursing its health for damages Donald Trump says Venezuela has inflicted on the United States.

Did you get a call? Did any of your Democratic colleagues receive a briefing this morning?

I didn't, I don't know of any of my colleagues who've gotten briefing.

I've seen statements from folks like Jim Himes, who is the ranking member on intelligence, Mark Warner in the Senate, who've all said that they had not heard anything.

And Joe, this is a critical moment for our country, the president.

Well, let me go back first to Maduro.

Maduro is a bad actor who deserves to face justice.

He stole an election in 2024, installed himself as president this time last year.

And then he said, not only would the US be using that oil to pay for, I'm assuming, its administration of Venezuela, but would also be reimbursing its health for damages Donald Trump says Venezuela has inflicted on the United States.