Congresswoman LaMonica McIver

Thank you for taking the time, first of all, when you're on your summer trip, and secondly, when I know you are about to have a baby.

[laughs]

[laughs] No, it's my pleasure.

Congratulations.

Yeah, we're just, we're so happy to have you on the show.

I have so many questions about the state of things and, and, you know, your office and [scoffs] I don't know, the dumpster fire that is 2026.

But before we dip into the present, I'm so curious, you know, I, I love to know who people were before they were a household name or, you know, an elected representative.

And if I think about, I'm especially excited for you because New Jersey is, like, my home away from home.

It's, you know, so important in my life with my partner now, and also my mom grew up in Teaneck.

Oh, wow! Okay.

Yeah, so I'm like, I'm like, "My representative from Newark," even though-

[laughs]

... technically you're not my representative.

But if we got to go back to Newark in 1996, and we got to hang out with you at 10 today, like, who was that little girl? Who was LaMonica when she just turned double digits? What was she into? Do you think she would be amazed by wh- what your life is now, or do you think she always knew she was meant to be a leader?

At 10, I was awful.

[laughs]

A very little... [laughs] I was a terrible mess, getting in trouble all the time at school.

Um, I mean, you name it, suspended, picking fights-

[gasps]

... literally.

And a lot of people cannot believe that, but at 10 years old, I had a fifth-grade teacher named Ras Baraka, who is actually the mayor now of the city-

Yes

... of Newark, and he had us.

He was a young, you know, uprising teacher, young, cool, you know we love the young, cool teachers in school, and he used to get on us bad kids all the time, I mean, getting us in shape.

But at the same time, he was running for office, and-

Thank you for taking the time, first of all, when you're on your summer trip, and secondly, when I know you are about to have a baby.

[laughs]

[laughs] No, it's my pleasure.

Congratulations.

Yeah, we're just, we're so happy to have you on the show.

I have so many questions about the state of things and, and, you know, your office and [scoffs] I don't know, the dumpster fire that is 2026.

But before we dip into the present, I'm so curious, you know, I, I love to know who people were before they were a household name or, you know, an elected representative.

And if I think about, I'm especially excited for you because New Jersey is, like, my home away from home.

It's, you know, so important in my life with my partner now, and also my mom grew up in Teaneck.

Oh, wow! Okay.

Yeah, so I'm like, I'm like, "My representative from Newark," even though-

[laughs]

... technically you're not my representative.

But if we got to go back to Newark in 1996, and we got to hang out with you at 10 today, like, who was that little girl? Who was LaMonica when she just turned double digits? What was she into? Do you think she would be amazed by wh- what your life is now, or do you think she always knew she was meant to be a leader?

At 10, I was awful.

[laughs]

A very little... [laughs] I was a terrible mess, getting in trouble all the time at school.

Um, I mean, you name it, suspended, picking fights-

[gasps]

... literally.

And a lot of people cannot believe that, but at 10 years old, I had a fifth-grade teacher named Ras Baraka, who is actually the mayor now of the city-

Yes

... of Newark, and he had us.

He was a young, you know, uprising teacher, young, cool, you know we love the young, cool teachers in school, and he used to get on us bad kids all the time, I mean, getting us in shape.

But at the same time, he was running for office, and-