Okay.

And before I got in this fight, we had nothing.

And then post-settlement, there will be an editorial board at CNN and CBS News.

We can talk about the quality and the effectiveness of that, but we had nothing, and now we have this editorial board.

And I wake up every day, I'm still frustrated, wishing I could have done more, okay? And so if you're saying that you are worried about these concerns and you wanted us to fight more and fight harder, but at the same time, it was improper to do so because somebody said there's some frankly cockeyed First Amendment argument that doesn't really work, number one, or number two, it didn't fit neatly in this antitrust lane or that antitrust lane, I would say cut the, let's cut the crap here, okay? We need to be street fighters in this battle, and I tried as hard as I could to take this to the streets.

[laughs]

Mm-hmm.

Okay? You're saying you guys didn't do enough, but you shouldn't have done it in the first place.

There's no, there's nothing causal that's gonna make you more likely to become a criminal or something else because- Because you were born here and your parents weren't

And we all know we built this place.

I mean, go to Connecticut, Igor Sikorsky, the founders of Electric Boat that make our nuclear attack submarines.

These are all immigrants.

Even the founders of General Electric, um, and these are companies that, that are or were established in Connecticut.

And, and my parents are part of that in their own small way.

They came here, they started a Chinese restaurant, and the 14th Amendment contains a promise.

Yeah

We want, uh, Roblox to be free and a creative community where people can engage." Th- this becomes criminal at some point, doesn't it?

Yeah, I, I mean, look, any time you're talking about child sex abuse material, any time you're talking about a predator going after a kid, um, and, and, and getting them to send sexually explicit images, um, to engage in conversation or conduct that is illegal, number one, um, and of a sexually explicit nature, and then of course getting them to platform jump to another platform, or as you know, Chris, then using all of these interactions, uh, to facilitate and engage in an in-person meeting in which, um, a predator engages in sexual assault, rape, or otherwise, I mean, all of this is criminal activity.

So it should come as no surprise to anybody that there's criminal exposure for people if they facilitate or aid and abet that, um, that sort of conduct.

Now, in Connecticut, I don't really have criminal jurisdiction.

That is, um, that is extra sub- sized by the state's attorneys.

In other states they're called district attorneys or DAs.

And so in Connecticut, I don't have, um, that, those sets of tools.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and, and so I'm an American by right of my birth and by operation of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution.

My parents were not citizens when I was born.

So it's, it's not just core to who I am as, as an American, as a person.

It's not core to our family, but it's core to millions of Americans.

So many people share our story.

And I just wanna say, Ronald Reagan understood that, and I hope my Republican friends are hearing me right now.

Yep.

Tong 你的背景是临床心理学家，你的教育啦，或者 education 都是在说我要 evidence based 的，你要 scientifically proven 的。但是在你的实践下，有很多东西我发现，你就是只用 evidence based 的 approach，其实已经是 solve 不到这件事啊。我想问你从小到大都已经是一个这样的 mindset，就是不只是 science 的，我们是有埋 spirituality，个人才完整。还是是你一路行，一路照顾这些个案的时候，你发现到，欸，其实不够喔，我只用 evidence based approach 不足够。

我是从小到大都有这个 mindset 的，因为呢，我是生长在一个的公教家庭啦，由小时候就已经和教会有接触。在我的学习当中，我明白到 science 的历史呢，其实是很短的。Science 只不过是发现一些已经存在了的东西，然后用一些推论去制造一些 hypothesis 回来，一些推理，然后就经过很多次的实验，认为这些 hypothesis 就是推论呢，是正确的。因此呢，就定了一些 theory 出来了，这样。无论是在 psychological 的 theory 好，或者 medicine 方面都好呢，这些 science 是近这几百年的事呢，可以这么说。但是人类就存在了很久的，人类的历史不需要 dependent on science 去证明他有价值存在的。而 science，就是科学呢，是可以在人类的历史当中理出一些想法出来，去帮助现代的人怎么样去跨越他们的困难的。我就再看回我的 training，是没 faith based 的 training 的，但是发觉原来不是可以很彻底地帮到我的病人，那我就必须要为着我的病人的益处再进一步了。所以一看到有需要，我就已经去播种希望。在现今的社会，大家会听到很多说有抑郁症的，是不是？那因为他不相信能够有希望，可以有一个幸福快乐的生活嘛。那正正播种希望就是很重要，对这一班人来讲很重要。我的功能呢，就是去帮他们，从他们的角度去找到希望之所在。

听不到的，是的。在听的观众可能会觉得，哇，好，好虚啊。我那些生命满希望，前路由我创啦，那但是我现在是觉得没有希望的嘛。那希望是不是一种幻想的东西来的？就是我想它，它就会在的啦。虽然我知道 Dr. Tong 刚刚你说的是希望是存在的，那但是没有这个信心的，或者没有这个 faith 的人，他怎么可以无缘无故会有个希望在前面呢？

我一般都不会很直接告诉他，你心怀希望啦，你有得救的。因为这些[笑]在我的角度都是废话来的[笑]。因为他都听不到，你讲的那些东西，和他内心里面的感受完全相违背的。反而呢，我是透过我的行为去让他感觉到他是被聆听的。假设呢，这个人是一直没有人听他讲话的，家长不理他，伴侣不理他，又在指责他的，在他的工作间的人会陷他的，他觉得呢，很没有安全感。但是在他们见我的时候呢，我是让这个病人呢，是占了我的生命的中心啊。在一个治疗室里面呢，他是我的生命的中心。那所以他说每一句话我都听进心的。他讲的话有些什么的假设性在里面，我都了解的，我都掌握的，是让这一班前来求助的人呢，感觉到被尊重，被聆听。而在他的生命里面，这些都不存在的。那在一个两个不同的世界喔，由他本来那个这么冷漠的世界，进入这个治疗室，是另外一个世界。我就会问一下他们啦，就是你讲了出来，你觉得我明不明白你呢？我当然呢，很有信心的时候我就会问这一句啦。因为这个不是第一坐下就会问的，是和他聊了一段时间会问。他说，“我从来都没有什么人会这样明白我的。”那我就问他，“那这个对你来讲代表着什么呀？有人明白你代表着什么？你以往没有喔，现在有喔，有希望还是没有希望啊？”等他自己答。他可能说，哦，在这里有希望，外面没希望。哦，OK。那如果你在这里知道你某某的取态啦，你是怎么跟人互动啦，有些什么东西你厘清了，是在你的能力控制范围之内，有什么东西是你控制不了的，而你去磨练自己，那你觉得会不会有机会给到你自己，你自己给自己的机会，在你的困难当中去尝试一下，看看有没有打开到新的局面呢？这个呢，就是一个很 gradual 的，很慢的一个 process，是让他呢，是很放松、很信任，由他自己自主去找希望的感觉是怎样的。而我给到他的呢，就是在治疗室里面一个很实在，自己亲身体验希望的感觉，然后将这个希望的感觉去应用。我教他，就是这个是 part of psychological education，我教他怎么样在他的实际环境里面去变招啦。好像上一集讲的那个呢，是要改变策略了，在有限的日子，临终的时间都改变策略了。所以我不断去寻求一些改变的一些可能性。

Well, she's being attacked and

targeted.

And I'm not guessing about this.

It's not implied.

We're not reading anything into it.

The president has said this.

The president has said point blank, I want to go after her.

What in the headlines do you see, or it may or may not be within your purview as Attorney General of the state of Connecticut, what do you see as the most hopeful news out there within this context? Yeah.

the arrangement now? Yeah.

People in the legislature and people across Connecticut are outraged and they don't want to see that fuel tax renewed.

They don't want to see a tax break for a company again that's running ICE Air and may be a party to illegal deportations of people, potentially now American citizens, right? Um, we're talking about a, a two-year-old, uh, a four-year-old with cancer, American citizens who have been deported.

Uh, and, and is ICE Air, is Avelo part of those deportations and part of those flights? Look, I can't stop a company from, um, operating a lawful business, but the state of Connecticut doesn't have to be their partner.

We don't have to operate, uh, we don't have to be a partner and invest in a new terminal, for example.

We don't have to give incentives for job creation and essentially revenue guarantees.

We don't have to give tax breaks, tax breaks over aviation fuel.

Yeah.

Can you, you know, unpack for me a little bit about how you got involved in that fight? It sort of sounds like from your h- family history that this is not just a professional fight for you but a personal one.

It, it is a fact of the Fourteenth Amendment that the plain language of, you know, a bedrock cornerstone of the United States Constitution means what it says.

If you're born on American soil, you're an American.

And that was established after the Civil War, you know, in response to essentially slavery and the Dred Scott decision, and the idea that slaves were not only not citizens, but not people.

So we passed and ratified the 14th Amendment as a country to establish that not just slaves, but all of us who are born on American soil are Americans.

That principle was affirmed by the Supreme Court in a case about a Chinese American, Wong Kim Ark.

And, and Alex, I would say this, can you imagine if another president said, "You know what? Notwithstanding what the Second Amendment says-

And I wonder if you could talk about the logic of that and your confidence that the judicial branch will continue to act as a bulwark against the worst impulses of the Trump administration.

So let's talk a little bit about the specifics because I know that you're part of a lawsuit against the president's executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship, and that the theory there is that that runs afoul of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and I think it's Section 1401 of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Can you, you know, unpack for me a little bit about how you got involved in that fight? It sort of sounds like from your hi- family history that this is not just a professional fight for you, but a personal one.

It, it is a fact of the Fourteenth Amendment that the plain language of, you know, a bedrock cornerstone of the United States Constitution means what it says. If you're born on American soil, you're an American. And that was established after the Civil War, you know, in response to essentially slavery and the Dred Scott decision, and the idea that slaves were...... not only not citizens, but not people. And so we passed and ratified the Fourteenth Amendment as a country to establish that not just slaves, but all of us who are born on American soil are Americans. That principle was affirmed by the Supreme Court in an case about a Chinese-American, Wong Kim Ark. And, and Alex, I would say this. Can you imagine if another president said, "You know what? Notwithstanding what the Second Amendment says-"

And I wonder if you could talk about the logic of that, and your confidence that the judicial branch will continue to act as a bulwark against the worst impulses of the Trump administration?

So, we have to be confident. We have to believe in the system. We have to trust the system or we are lost. And so, you know, you and I could spend an hour, the next 10 hours going into some dark, very dark places and rabbit holes. What if this happens? What if that happens? You know, I- I've said many times to people, "Don't go there," right? Don't go to what happens if the Alabama National Guard is ordered to go to Connecticut. Don't go there.

So what was it about this day-one pledge, this birthright citizenship pledge that Trump is making that grabbed your attention?

Well, it's very personal for me and millions of Americans.

Like millions of Americans, my parents came here with nothing.

My dad had 57 cents left in his pocket, to be exact, uh, when he arrived in Hartford, Connecticut.

They opened a Chinese restaurant, and when I was born, they were not yet citizens.

I was the first American born in my immediate family.

And in one generation, I've gone from working with my parents in our hot Chinese restaurant kitchen to being, to being the attorney general of our state, and, and that was all made possible by the, by the right of my birth, the right to be an American citizen, a right that's given me an opportunity to have the education, the, the employment opportunities, the jobs that I've had that have given me the opportunity to run for office.

How do you expect this fight to unfold if he tries to do what he says he's gonna try?