What do you think it says? What message does it send?

Well, I mean, look, uh, the voters, uh, of the new 25th district, which was gerrymandered by my Republican colleagues to try to take me out of the House, uh, they did that in the cover of darkness in, in two days, uh, to try to remove four Democrats from the House.

I think the voters, uh, tonight more Democrats, uh, voted than Republicans, uh, in this, uh, in this new 25th district.

People wanna see a change.

They wanna see people talk about affordability.

They wanna see talking about getting our healthcare prices down.

They want us to go to Washington, and they wanna demand change and to stop the corruption, uh, that they've seen, uh, from this administration.

Um, w- what does your race and this epic fight that is going on between whether they're called Democratic socialists, self-described, or they fit sort of that perspective and that, that you just described, what does this race tell America or tell the party?

So can you give a little bit of an overview right now in terms of what you've seen in Congress that lends itself to this idea that Troy Nels is perpetuating that nobody works as hard as these Republican members of Congress?

I mean, what a joke.

I mean, look, he's just parroting his boss and the president, right, who said affordability is a hoax.

That's worked out real great for the president, said that a couple of times.

And his aides said, you need to stop saying that, Mr.

President, because it's a real thing.

People are struggling in this country.

Why don't these people help themselves? Why do they just insist on heaping every ounce of deference onto the guy who's screwing them over in this upcoming election?

So can you give a little bit of an overview right now in terms of what you've seen in Congress that lends itself to this idea that Troy Nels is perpetuating, that nobody works as hard as these Republican members of Congress?

I mean, what a joke.

I mean, look, he's just parroting his boss and the president, right, who said affordability is a hoax.

That's worked out real great for the president.

Said that a couple of times, and his aides said, you need to please stop saying that, Mr.

President, because it's a real thing.

People are struggling in this country.

Why don't these people help themselves? Why do they just insist on heaping every ounce of deference onto the guy who's screwing them over in this upcoming election?

Yeah

... are struggling in this country." And then here comes Troy Nehls.

He walks down the marble steps of the Capitol and says, "I'm going home and having lobster tails and ribeye." Uh, a- and, you know, the reporter says, you know, "Well, what about the people who can't afford it?" And he says, "Well, you know, forget the 60% Americans who can't afford it, and don't work as hard as me." Work as hard as you? Troy, I don't know if you know this, but in the first six months of the year, Congress has only worked 44 days.

We have only worked a total of 44 days.

In fact, I'm home now.

We're supposed to be in DC.

Yet again, the Speaker sent us home.

Yeah.

Tell us more about this bill, what it would do, and how the benefits, uh, would, uh, would really be significant.

Uh, well, Congresswoman Luna and I had been having conversations about student loan debt, uh, and that, you know, that had become a partisan issue.

Uh, and that, you know, there were a lot of people saddled with debt, and there were some solutions that came forward and then, you know, obviously it went to the Supreme Court.

Uh, but o- one of the things we talked about is, how can we stop making the situation worse? Yes, there's a bunch of people who are stuck, but how can we stop making the situ- w- situation worse? How can we not put people into this bucket? And that's when we came up with this idea.

Mike Lawler, uh, is also a, a co-sponsor, uh, with us.

And the idea is, is that that way people can get loans and they can pay principal.

It's very hard to pay principal when you're at 6%, 7%, 8%, you're mostly paying interest.

Congressman, you've spoken publicly about some of the threats you've received.

Has your party, the Democratic Party, sufficiently reckoned with its past missteps to succeed in future elections?

I think we have.

I think we have reckoned with that.

Whether the DNC has reckoned with that is a different question, obviously.

The fact that they worked on a document that doesn't tackle maybe the two or three largest problems in the last election kind of tells you that some of the folks there were in denial of what happened.

The American people know.

That's why the election wasn't close.

Are members of your party, the Democratic Party, doing enough to try to disavow these kinds of views?

But this is how he feels about this.

You know, it's scary.

Uh, obviously my kids sometimes read the news and see some of this, or they hear it from their friends.

Um, you know, and so look, it's, it's dangerous.

A lot of people in the Jewish community, you know, are scared.

A lot of my members, uh, are, are scared about it.

We're seeing this, the increase dramatically.

Yeah.

What's your sense of what, if anything, you think the president has accomplished at least so far during his China trip?

Well, obviously, look, stuff is just starting to come out.

You know, a lot of this stuff has probably been agreed to before the trip even started.

Getting the market, the Chinese market, open to US companies, specifically Boeing, would be a big deal.

You know, working on some guardrails for artificial intelligence would be great.

Talking about rare earth minerals, with with the chinese who control a lot of that around the globe uh... extremely important some news came out that uh...

the chinese has agreed to work with u.s. and trying to get the straight-forward moves open we'll have to see the details of that you know but a lot of this has been worked out uh... beforehand some reports about uh... selling uh... allowing the video to sell chips to the chinese if i would be against allowing the video to sell their most advanced chips to the chinese we're gonna again we're gonna have to see the details of that you know right now a lot of platitudes the details really matter

Do you give the Trump administration any credit for that?

Why do you think DHS is the wrong place for FEMA and TSA?

Well, it's not whether it's the wrong place, it's whether DHS has become too bureaucratic, too big, uh, and it's hard for agencies now to function and get attention and get decisions out of...

Everything funnels up to the general counsel's office.

I heard it from FEMA administrators in the Biden administration.

I heard it from FEMA administrators in the first Trump administration.

I heard it from Secret Service when I was on the assassination task force after Butler, appointed at by the speaker.

It, it, Homeland was a great idea after 9/11.

But the ballroom itself should be paid for by private donations, as the president had indicated." What, what's your take on this all?

W-

There's so many questions.

First of all, why did she hand out the binder that was full of, you know, all the Epstein stuff, you know, to the influencers? Then why did she say, "The list was on my desk," then she said there was no list.

Why did she say, you know, that, um, you know, that...

Why, why did the White House, you know, put out there that this was a Democratic hoax, uh, we should move on from this? Why did the White House say anyone who sends the discharge petition, um, you know, is a hostile act against the White House? Why did they bring Republicans, uh, into the Situation Room trying to get them off the discharge petition? You know, the Situation Room where, you know, the president sits and goes to war.

You know, where they threaten Republicans with primary opponents.

They, they try to sweeten the deal by giving them stuff in the budget.

What are your thoughts on all of this, and, and what do you say to anybody who says, "Oh, oh God, this is ridiculous, and this is all nonsense, and you're a conspiracy theorist, crackhead," all that stuff?

So is, uh, is Congress going to relinquish its, uh, desire to have her come and testify now that she's no longer AG?

Well, first let me say, you know, this was the scenario that many Democrats, myself included, were concerned about, which is, you know, the Republicans threatening to hold the Clintons in contempt if they didn't show up.

Would they hold that same standard, uh, if it were Pam Bondi or, or a Republican, uh, that, uh, was subpoenaed? And now we're finding out it's unclear, uh, if the same people that subpoenaed Pam Bondi are, are willing to hold her in contempt.

To be clear, she has to show up.

The subpoena has nothing to do with her being attorney general.

It's her.

She has to go.

Yeah

[laughs]

I think he'll lose the vote.

I think there are a bunch of Republicans on the Oversight Committee that will hold her in contempt, because it's re- it's over the Epstein issue.

Right? If this was something else, Molly, maybe not, but over Epstein I think they'll hold her in contempt.

So my guess is now they're trying to figure out a new date for her to come, but my guess is, is that she will eventually be at a deposition.

It won't be, it won't be televised anyway, right? She'll be at a deposition somewhere in the basement of this building or somewhere else.

But I mean, there are a lot of questions to ask her.

Nannies.

Make sure you drop a like below, and make sure you subscribe to the Adam Adler feed for more premium debate content and political content.

You know, before we talk about Kristi and the investigations, we can talk about, you know, she's like the least empathetic person in the country, and obviously some news came out today about her family.

And what it confirms, I think, to me, is that this is why she killed Cricket.

He knew the whole time, uh, what her husband was up to.

Uh, and because Cricket knew and saw too much, uh, she shot him in the face.

Uh, and so look, a- a- at the end of the day, this is exactly...

This is perfect, a perfect ending.

Yeah.

Right

... gonna find, Rick, that there was pay to play.

You're gonna find that he was shaking down other lobbyists, Republican lobbyists, to get contracts.

You're gonna find he was shaking down vendors before they got their payments that were owed to them contractually.

We...

You're gonna fi- what, what's gonna, what, what is eventually gonna come out, uh, from DHS, uh, when they are fully out after March 31st and they take over this prestigious shield of the Americas job, i- i- is going to shock the conscience.

And even Republicans, you're seeing, uh, are gonna turn, turn against her.

Mm-hmm

And what are you going to be zeroing in on?

Well, first of all, I love the letter, right? Possible mismanagement? Yeah.

I mean, I'm pretty sure it was mismanagement.

I mean, first of all, let's just go back down Epstein memory lane for a second.

First, she gave the binders to the influencers.

Then the list was on her desk.

Then there was no list, maybe no desk, in fact.

Is there a different legal jeopardy for her in this deposition? Or is it

First of all, where do you stand on President Trump's request for US allies, NATO allies specifically, to help secure the Strait of Hormuz?

Well, obviously, it would be nice if they came and helped us, but this is clearly a failure of the administration to figure out what the plan for the Strait of Hormuz was before we went into the war.

This is clearly an oversight.

Everybody knew that if this ever happened, they would use the Strait of Hormuz.

That wasn't a secret, that that would be used as a choke point.

And so now we're trying to build a coalition after the fact.

to try to do this.

confirmed by the Senate.

But all of that notwithstanding, your reaction to this new talking point from Donald Trump that actually high oil, high oil prices, high gas prices are good.

Well, I guess I could say that he's defs- definitely testing his theory that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and get away with it, because this is obviously, this is g- he's gonna try to defy gravity here, okay? Everybody knows that when they go to the gas pump, they're gonna see what they're paying, right? That is where all the talking points and all the propaganda and all the spin, all the marketing, all the sales that Trump tries to do, all of that dies at the gas pump, because math is still math.

People can see that they're paying more for gas as a result of the president's strategy and plans.

A- and so, listen, this is not gonna work out how he thinks.

He's not gonna be able to convince the American people that we're making more money.

Who is the we? It's not the American people who are suffering every day, obviously, under this economy as costs continue to, to go up.

And so this is not gonna work out for the president.

Yeah.

I mean, is there negotiation happening, and what does it look like?

There's no negotiation happening.

Neither side, obviously rightfully so on our side, we're, we're not gonna give in on a lot of these changes we want to see.

By the way, not only do I want policy changes, Molly, I want Kristi Noem to be fired.

The idea that we're gonna agree to policy changes and then expect Kristi Noem, okay, to implement this, makes absolutely no sense to me, so she needs to go.

She's the absolute weakest link to the president's administration.

If this was the show Apprentice, he would've fired her long ago.

Right.

d- do you buy this idea that he's gonna declassify any of this stuff, or is this just, uh, you know, some example of, "Ooh, this is a shiny thing that can help distract from the Epstein files?"

Yeah, I'm just waiting for the Pope to come out and condemn your actions.

You know, uh, look, I obviously have been involved with this.

Uh, I've been involved with, uh, the UAP task force, uh, that we set up, uh, in, in Congress.

I've been, uh, part of a number of hearings that we did, uh, in oversight.

Uh, and, and look, I, I, I do believe that the American government is lying to the American people about these UAPs.

Um, a- and we're not getting the information that I think they have.

But, like, but the second part of your answer made it sound otherworldly, and so, and so, you know, what are we talking about here? Th- is there, is there some consensus, even among the international community, that some of these UAPs that, that folks have seen, um, d- don't belong to some foreign military? Like, are-

[clears throat]

Yeah, I mean, listen, we saw this week- uh, perhaps she was spending time with Secretary Kennedy, um, and, and boosting her immune, uh, system by, you know, snorting cocaine off a toilet seat like Kennedy did in order to make sure he doesn't get any germs.

Uh, uh, I, I have no idea what that hearing was.

I mean, she obviously came in with a tactic.

Um, and maybe it would've worked sparingly here and there, but-... you know, to ask every Republican for twenty seconds to respond to the Democrat, and then they didn't respond, they just read from the burn book.

That's why I was like, um, she doesn't need to yield twenty seconds or ask for twenty seconds from one of my colleagues.

I'll give her twenty seconds of my time.

What, what, what, what should we look forward to when she, uh, when she testifies before your committee?

The Peter principle.

Yeah, I mean, listen, we saw this week, uh, perhaps she was spending time with Secretary Kennedy, um, and, and boosting her immune, uh, system by, you know, snorting cocaine off a toilet seat like Kennedy did in order to make sure he doesn't get any germs.

Uh, uh, I, I have no idea what that hearing was.

I mean, she obviously came in with a tactic, um, and maybe it would've worked sparingly here and there, but, you know, to ask every Republican for twenty seconds to respond to the Democrat, and then they didn't respond, they just read from the burn book.

That's why I was like, I'm-- she doesn't need to yield twenty seconds or ask for twenty seconds from one of my colleagues.

I'll give her twenty seconds of my time.

Like let's, let's do it.

What, what, wha- what should we look forward to when she, uh, when she testifies before your committee?

Do you want to go down

this? Oh, I think there's a piece of that.

Because, by the way, Hillary is not in the files.

There's no pictures with Hillary, right? The Hillary is not a part of this.

There are pictures with Bill.

We've all seen them, right? So the Republicans, including Hillary in this was, you know, them was an overreach.

It had nothing to do with the Epstein subpoena.

They negotiating is who Clinton's

Yep

... uh, was at.

I got elected really young.

I got elected to the Parkland City Commission when I was 25.

I was the youngest elected official in the state at the time, and, you know, the rest is really history.

Wound up in the State House, I was there during the shooting, and then this guy, Ron DeSantis, won, uh, for governor.

I didn't vote for him, didn't support him, uh, supported the other guy.

I like the avoid demonstration part.

So let me just get your reaction to the day's developments and what the president says is now a framework of a deal on Greenland.

Well, obviously, look, it's, it's a good U-turn.

Everyone's happy that, you know, the president backed down earlier this morning about troops and then, you know, now obviously has backed down.

The, the bond market is undefeated as, as it turns out, and so I think that's good news.

Now, obviously, I think, look, there's aspects to the fact we want to prevent China and Russia, um, you know, from getting more control of the Arctic.

So there are some real, uh, implications for what's going on here, but the president did it, uh, in my opinion, all the, all the wrong way.

He said we're getting everything, uh, we wanted under this deal.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Uh, we heard from, uh, every living Fed Chair that this was an overreach by the president.

We heard from former Treasury Secretaries that this was disastrous.

We heard from a dozen nations and their monetary leaders who do business with the United States that this would undermine a- our credibility.

And so, look, I know the president is interested in Venezuela, but we c- we don't want Venezuelan monetary policy here, uh, in, in America.

And so, yeah, there were a half a dozen Republican senators who came out, uh, against this.

Uh, I know the majority of my colleagues, even if they're afraid to speak, are against, uh, against this.

Yeah.