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| Welcome back. | ||
| We are discussing Russia-Ukraine ceasefire talks with Doug Klain, Eurasia Center non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council. | ||
| Doug, welcome to the program. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thanks for having me. | |
| You are also part of an organization called RASM. | ||
| Can you tell us about that, what the mission is and the funding? | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, absolutely. | |
| So RASM for Ukraine is a nonprofit organization. | ||
| It's been around in the U.S. for about 11 years now. | ||
| It was founded in 2014 when Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity was happening. | ||
| And it started really as an excellent but small humanitarian aid organization getting humanitarian aid, medical assistance over to Ukraine. | ||
| After the full-scale invasion started, though, in 2022, it really ballooned up. | ||
| And now we've delivered over $150 million worth of aid in Ukraine. | ||
| We also have an advocacy team here in Washington, D.C., and that's where I work. | ||
| I work as their policy analyst, kind of their in-house think tanker, figuring out what does the news mean about Ukraine? | ||
| How does that impact policy? | ||
| And that humanitarian support, does that come from private donations, foundations? | ||
| Do you get any U.S. government funding? | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes, so ROSM is entirely privately funded. | |
| We take no money from any government. | ||
| We're completely independent. | ||
| So President Trump spoke with President Zelensky yesterday that followed his call on Tuesday with Russia's leader Putin. | ||
| Get us up to speed on the latest developments and what you make of them. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, so I think that last week, of course, we had these big talks in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia between the U.S. and Ukraine, and Ukraine agreed to President Trump's proposal for an unconditional ceasefire. | |
| Secretary of State Rubio then said the ball is in Russia's court to accept this unconditional ceasefire. | ||
| We waited about a week as there were some of these talks going on waiting for what Putin's response would be. | ||
| And then, of course, this week we had this call between President Trump and Putin. | ||
| And Putin essentially said, no, I'm not ready to accept your unconditional ceasefire, but maybe we can talk about a conditional ceasefire. | ||
| And that's where this conversation about a partial energy ceasefire or an energy and infrastructure ceasefire comes from. | ||
| There's been some lack of clarity over exactly what was agreed to, but Zelensky has said we're ready for moving forward. | ||
| We're ready for peace. | ||
| Now, President Zelensky has posted on X, it says that Russian strikes on Ukraine do not stop despite their propaganda claims. | ||
| Every day, every night, nearly 100 or more drones are launched, along with ongoing missiles. | ||
| It says with each launch, the Russians expose to the world their true attitude towards peace. | ||
| As far as you know, are those attacks on energy infrastructure continuing? | ||
|
unidentified
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So we have seen strikes on energy infrastructure since that call between Putin and Trump. | |
| I'm not sure about the strikes that happened last night. | ||
| They were in Kirovihorod Oblast, south of Kiev. | ||
| There were horrific casualties, though. | ||
| One person suffered, according to Ukrainian authorities, over 90% burns across their body. | ||
| It's unclear whether there were strikes on energy infrastructure last night, but since that call between Trump and Putin, there have been. | ||
| Just a couple of hours after Putin said that we're ready for an energy ceasefire. | ||
| Russian missiles then took out all of the power in one Ukrainian city. | ||
| So Russia has not yet started implementing any kind of energy ceasefire. | ||
| Do you think there will be an energy ceasefire? | ||
| Do you take Putin at his word that he will abide by the ceasefire? | ||
|
unidentified
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I don't take Putin at his word. | |
| Russia has agreed to dozens and dozens of ceasefires, of agreements to have peace or to halt fighting, and they've continuously violated them. | ||
| Maybe things will be different this time. | ||
| I think that there is a lot of incentive for the Russians to try to avoid spurning Trump and trying to push him more towards Ukraine. | ||
| We've seen that some of Trump's people, like General Keith Kellogg, have talked about, if Russia won't come to the table, maybe we need to start arming Ukraine more and giving Ukraine more leverage to then try to force Russia to the table to negotiate. | ||
| I think that that is something that Russia is trying to avoid. | ||
| But really what we're seeing with these kinds of talks and half steps from Putin is an attempt, I think, to drag out the process. | ||
| Trump has shown that he's very eager to push for peace as soon as possible, trying very hard to get some kind of agreement. | ||
| And it's in Putin's interest to drag that out. | ||
| How is that in Putin's interest to drag things out? | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, so the key way that it's in Putin's interest to drag things out is that Russia's goals in this war have not fundamentally changed. | |
| And I think there's a bit of a mismatch between what the U.S. is expecting Russia wants and what Russia actually wants and says that it wants. | ||
| Russia's goals for the last couple of years have still been to overthrow Ukraine's democratically elected government, to conquer Ukraine, and destroy anything it can't take. | ||
| They've been very plain about these goals, even when Trump started these peace talks with the Russian government. | ||
| Plenty of Kremlin officials like Dmitry Medvedev, the former president, have still talked about, our goals are still to destroy Ukraine. | ||
| And so for Putin right now, dragging out these peace talks a bit, it allows Russia to regroup, to get a breath. | ||
| They've been straining on the battlefield, taking very heavy losses, trying to take whatever territory they can. | ||
| And if they can get some kind of a pause right now, regroup, rearm, then they can be in a better position to continue this war in the future. | ||
| We will take your calls for Doug Klain. | ||
| We're talking about Ukraine, the war in Ukraine, and the talks with Russia on a ceasefire. | ||
| The lines are Democrats, 202748-8000. | ||
| It's 202-748-8001 for Republicans and 202-748-8002 for independents. | ||
| I want to play for you an interview with Bloomberg TV. | ||
| That White House Special Envoy Steve Witkoff talked about those Russian attacks that we were just talking about against Ukraine and what he thinks of President Putin and his acting. | ||
| This is here he is. | ||
| With regard to your question on some of the reporting, with regard to the Russian drones last night, I have it on good information from a telephone call I had before I went on this show that President Putin issued an order within 10 minutes of his call with the president directing Russian forces not to be attacking any Ukrainian energy infrastructure. | ||
| And that was, and any attacks that happened last night would have happened before that order was given. | ||
| In fact, the Russians tell me this morning that seven of their drones were on their way when President Putin issued his order and they were shot down by Russian forces. | ||
| So I tend to believe that President Putin is operating in good faith. | ||
| He said that he was going to be operating in good faith to the president yesterday, and I take him at his word. | ||
| What do you think of that, Doc Lee? | ||
|
unidentified
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If Putin is operating in good faith, that would be a first. | |
| Now, this was an interesting case. | ||
| I'm glad that you played that clip. | ||
| Mr. Witkoff said that the Russians stopped firing after that agreement, that there was an order that was sent out. | ||
| I was still getting texts from people in Kiev hours after this call, after this agreement, saying, missiles are still coming. | ||
| Drones are still coming. | ||
| I think that it's verifiably false that the Russians just stopped attacking after this call. | ||
| I want to ask you about this article in the New York Post with the headline, Trump suggests U.S. help run Ukraine's nuclear power plants and that the White House has moved beyond the mineral deal. | ||
| What do you make of that? | ||
| Do you think that would be a good idea? | ||
|
unidentified
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It's something that I think we definitely need more details on. | |
| It's an odd and new proposal. | ||
| And I think that one thing that people are trying to understand is what power plants first are we talking about? | ||
| Trump has expressed some interest in the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. | ||
| Yeah, that's what this article says, which is the biggest one. | ||
|
unidentified
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Which is the biggest one. | |
| It's also under Russian occupation. | ||
| There have been several times when, because of that Russian occupation, there have been fears of a nuclear accident at that power plant. | ||
| And so if Trump is talking about U.S. ownership of Ukrainian power plants, well, this still seems to be a continuance, I would say, of this line of reasoning that the Trump administration has had, that if the U.S. is invested in Ukraine, if there is U.S. ownership of assets in Ukraine, then that is some kind of a security guarantee for Ukraine, because the U.S. will have a stake in what happens and whether there is fighting. | ||
| I think that there would be a lot of questions on what would U.S. ownership of a power plant like this look like. | ||
| Would that power still be sold and given back to Russian-occupied Ukraine, or would that power be going to Ukraine? | ||
| Additionally, that power plant has been monitored and held by IAEA inspectors. | ||
| They're international inspectors to prevent a nuclear accident from being there. | ||
| But they have not acted as something of a security guarantee. | ||
| So there are international, non-Ukrainian, non-Russian personnel that have been at that power plant, but that hasn't stopped fighting yet. | ||
| All right, let's talk to callers. | ||
| We'll start with Andrew in Staten Island, New York, Independent. | ||
| Hi, Andrew. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| My understanding was that as far as the agreement was concerned, the United States said it was supposed to be power plants and infrastructure. | ||
| But the Russians said it was supposed to be power plant infrastructure. | ||
| Therefore, they took that as leeway to strike other facilities like hospitals and churches and things of that nature. | ||
| This seems to be similar to what Governor Abbott said when he started shipping out all of the so-called illegal immigrants to democratic or sanctuary cities. | ||
| He said they say one thing, but they do something different. | ||
| How can you trust an autocrat like Putin? | ||
| And that's my concern. | ||
| What does he have on Trump? | ||
| All right. | ||
| Well, Andrew, let's take that up. | ||
| What do you think, Doug? | ||
|
unidentified
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So this is a good question, actually. | |
| There's a lack of precision in what exactly came out of that Trump-Putin call. | ||
| The Kremlin put out a statement saying we've agreed to an energy ceasefire. | ||
| President Trump posted on social media that we've agreed to an energy and infrastructure ceasefire. | ||
| And of course, then the Ukrainian side said energy and infrastructure, that's excellent because everything is infrastructure. | ||
| That means Russia can't keep destroying our hospitals. | ||
| Russia can't keep destroying apartment buildings. | ||
| And the Kremlin seems to say, no, that's not what we're talking about. | ||
| So this is a lack of precision that seems to have been opened up by Trump. | ||
| You know, it's unclear whether this was an unforced error in some way, but that has created an ambiguity to what exactly has been agreed to. | ||
| And now I think this weekend we're expecting U.S. and Ukrainian officials to try to iron out the technicalities here. | ||
| You know, yesterday on this program, we were talking about the order from the Pentagon that U.S. cyber command stand down from offensive cyber operations against Russia. | ||
| I wonder what you think of that and how Russia would respond to that and if that opens up any vulnerabilities to the United States. | ||
|
unidentified
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I think it absolutely opens up vulnerabilities. | |
| It's something of a free pass to Russia. | ||
| For years, the Russians have been waging hybrid warfare against Europe, against the United States. | ||
| There have been significant cyber attacks against the U.S. | ||
| And by standing down and stopping efforts to counter that, that really is a big question, Mark. | ||
| It seems like that move was part of this broader strategy of resetting relations with Russia that the Trump administration is pursuing. | ||
| Even Special Envoy Keith Kellogg has used that phrase of it's a reset with Russia. | ||
| And so it seems like an attempt to try to have nicer relations with Russia and hope that that de-escalates the conflict. | ||
| But so far, we're really only seeing few tangibles coming out, like a hockey game between the U.S. and Russia that Trump and Putin may have agreed to. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal, a live forum inviting you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy. | ||
| From Washington, D.C. to across the country. | ||
| Coming up Friday morning, we'll talk with Georgetown University Law Center's Stephen Bladek about President Trump's recent statements about the judiciary and reactions from the legal community. | ||
| And then former Trump Homeland Security official Ken Cuccinelli, now a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America, discusses Trump administration immigration and deportation policies. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal. | ||
| Join the conversation live at 7 Eastern Friday morning on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at c-span.org. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, here's the deal. | ||
| Here's the deal. | ||
| That $36, $36 trillion number is not going away. | ||
| It is not going away unless we deal with Medicare and Medicaid. | ||
|
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We are not interested in hearing that you are in the minority. | |
| We know that. | ||
| We want you to show some of the backbone and strategic brilliance that Mitch McConnell would have in the minority. | ||
| We want you to show fight. | ||
| And you are not fighting. | ||
| This weekend, join C-SPAN for a special Congressional Town Hall Marathon. | ||
| Watch unfiltered conversations with lawmakers as they engage directly with their constituents on key issues. | ||
| The marathon starts at 10 a.m. Eastern with a town hall by New Jersey Democratic Senator Andy Kim, live from Brick Township, New Jersey. | ||
| Other featured members include Wyoming Republican Congresswoman Harriet Hageman, Maryland Democratic Congressman Glenn Ivey, Nebraska Republican Congressman Mike Flood, Colorado Democratic Senator Michael Bennett, and many more. | ||
| C-SPAN's Congressional Town Hall Marathon beginning Saturday at 10 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN and online at c-SPAN.org. | ||
| Book TV every Sunday on C-SPAN 2 features leading authors discussing their latest non-fiction books. | ||
| Here's a look at what's coming up this weekend. | ||
| At 6.45 p.m. Eastern, Pakistani British author and activist Tariq Ali discusses his memoirs, You Can't Please All, which covers the years 1980 to 2024. | ||
| He also talks about the war in Gaza and student protests in the United States. | ||
| Then at 8 p.m. Eastern, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael Hiltzig with his book Golden State, The Making of California, looks at the history of California from the 1840s gold rush era to the current tech boom. | ||
| At 9 p.m. Eastern, Grove City College political science professor Paul Kengore, author of The Devil and Karl Marx, talks about the role of communists in the creation of International Women's Day and other progressive celebrations. | ||
| And at 10 p.m. Eastern on Afterwards, best-selling author Michael Lewis poses the question, who works for the government and why does their work matter? | ||
| He's interviewed by Harvard Kennedy School of Government Public Policy and Management professor Elizabeth Linos. | ||
| Watch Book TV every Sunday on C-SPAN 2 and find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at booktv.org. | ||
| C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered. | ||
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| C-SPAN spoke with freshman members of the U.S. House about their life experiences and why they decided to run for Congress. | ||
| Tonight, we bring you interviews with Virginia Republican John McGuire, New Hampshire Democrat Maggie Goodlander, South Carolina Republican Sherry Biggs, and California Democrat Dave Minn. | ||
| And then coming up later, interviews with Kansas Republican Derek Schmidt, California Democrat Letifa Simon, and Arizona Republican Abraham Hamaday. | ||
| One of more than 60 new members of the U.S. House is John McGuire. | ||
| The Virginia Republican has served as a U.S. Navy SEAL, has experience in business, and has been a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and Virginia Senate. | ||
| He talks here about his career and his path to Congress. | ||
| Wow, well, we've come a long ways to get here to Congress. | ||
| What an honor. | ||
| I've been here five weeks and I've met some amazing people. | ||
| Well, I guess if you go back to the beginning, you know, I was abandoned when I was five years old. | ||
| My mother and father had alcohol issues. | ||
| So my sister and I were left on the side of the road when we were five. | ||
| The police found us. | ||
| We ended up in foster homes and I attended nine different elementary schools. | ||
| Now, my sister and I were together for the first foster home and then we got separated. | ||
| And my wife doesn't like it when I say it, but it's debatable. | ||
| That turned out okay. | ||
| But my grandfather fought in World War II, one of the toughest men I've ever met. | ||
| He had already raised his children. | ||
| Him and my grandmother rescued me and my sister, brought us together, and raised us until my father got sober. | ||
| And, you know, on November 5th, when we got President Trump in the White House, we got a majority in the U.S. Senate and we got a majority in the House of Representatives. | ||
| And that week, it was a week of redemption for my family because my father celebrated 41 years of sobriety and my younger brother got promoted to brigadier general and I got elected to Congress. | ||
| Now everybody thinks my brother's older than me, but I say that's because he's more mature. | ||
| But my brother and I went to my father, 83 years old, and we said, Dad, if you hadn't fought so hard to get sober, he wouldn't be a brigadier general, and I wouldn't be in Congress. | ||
| But you know, I think God gives us obstacles to chisel us into the men and women we're supposed to be. | ||
| Life is tough, but it's still amazing. | ||
| So high school, high school, wrestle, cross-country soccer, took karate. | ||
| And I watched this guy, Ronald Reagan, on the TV. | ||
| You know how many young people pay attention to politicians? | ||
| But even to this day, I remember him talking about American exceptionalism. | ||
| He talked about being part of something bigger than yourself. | ||
| He talked about a 600-ship Navy, and I was like, I want to be part of that. | ||
| You know, my grandfather served in the Navy in World War II, and we read a lot of books on Guadalfinal Diary, the Battle of Iojima, the Battle of the Bulge. | ||
| And so it kind of shaped my world view as a man of service, love of country, and of course strengthened my Christian faith. | ||
| And so listening to Ronald Reagan, I was like, I want to be in the Navy. | ||
| So you remember that movie Top Gun? | ||
| So Top Gun was out there. | ||
| My grades weren't great, but I took celestial air navigation. | ||
| I took aerodynamics, and I was going to be a pilot. | ||
| But I took karate, and my karate-sensei was a Green Beret in Vietnam, just an incredible patriot warrior. | ||
| And he said, why would you want to be a pilot? | ||
| If they take your plane away, you're no good. | ||
| But if you become a Green Beret, you are a weapon. | ||
| I said, no, I want to fly. | ||
| But one day, someone gave me a magazine called Gung Ho, and it said toughest men alive. | ||
| It said scuba diving, sniper rifles, service to others behind enemy lines. | ||
| I took that magazine to my Green Beret Sensei. | ||
| I said, what about these guys? | ||
| And he said, they're a bunch of crazy blank-blank. | ||
| And by the way, you're too small and you can never do it. | ||
| And maybe that was the psychology I needed. | ||
| But typically in Navy SEAL training, 200 men per class, usually 20 graduate. | ||
| One class graduated zero out of 200. | ||
| So it's not for the faint of heart. | ||
| It's nothing personal. | ||
| We have a set of standards. | ||
| If you meet the standards, you're a SEAL. | ||
| If you don't meet the standards, you're not. | ||
| Because behind enemy lines in combat, you cannot afford the luxury of a quitter. | ||
| It's a meritocracy. | ||
| You have to, you have to have the right people for the job. | ||
| And the principles of teamwork and leadership and communication are extremely important, or we don't come home to our family. | ||
| And that's a message for all veterans at every level. | ||
| You have been in business as well. | ||
| Tell us what you've done. | ||
| Well, I got out of the Navy, and I had this idea. | ||
| I was going to go to the FBI and be one of their snipers. | ||
| I was a sniper instructor in the SEAL team. | ||
| And I had trained with several SWAT teams in the country. | ||
| And they said, if you ever get out of the Navy, we'd love to hire you. | ||
| And so, but I needed some college credits. | ||
| So I'm like, how do you pay for college? | ||
| So I started a business. | ||
| And the business was an outdoor fitness class. | ||
| It had a teamwork, leadership, communication spent to it. | ||
| Seems to be a theme here. | ||
| And one day, a high school football coach said, well you teach our team leadership. | ||
| And I'm a small part of what they do, but they won the state championship. | ||
| So the team that got second place, they hired me the next year. | ||
| And by luck, they won the state championship. | ||
| So then Penn State hired me, Texas hired me, USC, MIT, and universities all over the country. | ||
| I've been a small part of 18 Division I championships. | ||
| One of those Division I teams is right here in Washington, D.C. | ||
| The coach called me up and said, we haven't won a championship in 40 years. | ||
| So I figured they were fifth place, sixth place. | ||
| They were last place. | ||
| And I asked the young man, I said, how are y'all going to do this year? | ||
| And they laughed and said, we're going to be last place. | ||
| So what my mentors taught me about being selfless, not selfish, and about respect. | ||
| You know, if you saved my life on the battlefield, I don't care if you're male or female, pink or blue, you call yourself a Democrat, Republican, or Independent. | ||
| We're all people, we're all Americans. | ||
| And I truly believe it is amazing what we can achieve when we put our differences aside, treat people with respect, and work together. | ||
| We can sometimes turn a no into a yes or an impossible to a possible. | ||
| And these experiences are the experiences I'm going to bring to Congress. | ||
| When did the idea of elective office come to your mind? | ||
| You know, I never really cared about politics until Trump came down the escalator. | ||
| You know, I was listening to him. | ||
| I mean, he sounded like, to me, a man who meant what he said and said what he meant. | ||
| And if you remember, he executed or he did in his first term what he said he was going to do. | ||
| And when you do that, you build trust. | ||
| And he also talked about fairness. | ||
| I think a big thing that's been lacking in our country these days are two things, is trust in government and fairness. | ||
| And so that's very important. | ||
| I think that's why the elections went the way they went in November. | ||
| And so if you tell everybody you're going to run for office and you're going to do A, B, C, D, and E, and then you get elected and you do A, B, C, D, and E, you build trust. | ||
| And we need to do that. | ||
| We have a great country. | ||
| And, you know, just because you call yourself this party or that party does not mean you have a monopoly on good ideas. | ||
| I've supported ideas on both sides of the aisle if they are a good idea. | ||
| And as we wrap up, tell us about your family and what they think about all of this. | ||
| Oh, we have. | ||
| My wife is my best friend. | ||
| I couldn't do this without her. | ||
| We have five children, and she says I'm number six. | ||
| But, you know, they grow up way too fast. | ||
| Our oldest daughter is 32, and our youngest boy is 26. | ||
| And so my advice to young people is hug your children, they grow up fast. | ||
| But our oldest boy is in the Navy, and that boy is strong. | ||
| He just got married. | ||
| So we're praying for grandkids. | ||
| But we're empty nesters now, and I see this as a way to continue service to our country. | ||
| You can't always help people, but when you can help them, it's just an awesome thing. | ||
| But we have our dog, Remy. | ||
| She's a big, great Pyrenees. | ||
| People say she looks like a polar bear. | ||
| Representative Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire is one of more than 60 new members of the U.S. House. | ||
| The Democrat has served as a Supreme Court law clerk, a foreign policy advisor in the U.S. Senate, and as a White House advisor in the Biden administration. | ||
| She talks here about her early life and professional career. | ||
| I was born on Election Day in Nashua, New Hampshire. | ||
| And my mom, Betty, at the time, she was serving in our state house. | ||
| And New Hampshire has the fourth largest legislature in the English-speaking world, just after the United States Congress. | ||
| My mom was serving in the legislature. | ||
| She went into labor on Election Day, and she went directly to our polling place at Broad Street Elementary School to vote before she went to St. Joe's Hospital where I was born. | ||
| And that is very much the spirit in which I was raised. | ||
| You know, I'm fourth generation Nashua girl, and New Hampshire really made me who I am today in every relevant respect. | ||
|
unidentified
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Your mom, of course, is part of that prominent political family in New Hampshire. | |
| Tell us more about your family, who they are, what they've done, and how they've influenced you. | ||
| Yeah, well, you know, I grew up on just down the road from the farm that my great-grandfather built when he came to the United States more than a century ago. | ||
| He came from northern Greece. | ||
| He was fleeing violence in our ancestral village, and he came to this country through Ellis Island. | ||
| I got a job as a dishwasher at a hotel in New York City, and as soon as he earned enough money, he made his way to Nashua. | ||
| And he really, his story is very much the American dream. | ||
| And I was raised with a really deep appreciation for everything that this country has given to my family and a real commitment to giving back in every way I possibly can. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'd imagine you had many family conversations about politics then growing up with the family. | |
| What were those like? | ||
| Well, you know, when I was two years old, my mom ran for this very seat. | ||
| And her opponent had a slogan at the time. | ||
| This was in 1988. | ||
| The slogan was, a woman's place is in the home, not in the house. | ||
| And that was remarkably a winning slogan in 1988. | ||
| But I was raised really to believe that a woman's place is absolutely in the House of Representatives. | ||
| And it is the honor of my lifetime to be representing the state I love so much here in the People's House. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So after college, you went to Yale Law School. | |
| And after graduation, your career has taken you to some really interesting and important assignments in the law and government service. | ||
| Talk to us about your career path. | ||
| Where have you been? | ||
| What have you done? | ||
| Well, I've served in all three branches of our government. | ||
| And the first job I had out of college was working actually in the United States Senate. | ||
| And I worked for two extraordinary senators, for Senator Joe Lieberman and for Senator John McCain. | ||
| And this was 15 years ago at a time when there was a lot more bipartisanship then than there is now. | ||
| But one of the things that really energizes me and what brings me to this work and what I've found in so many of my colleagues already on both sides of the aisle is a desire to be here to actually do the work of the American people and the people of New Hampshire. | ||
| And they're the best boss that America could ever ask for. | ||
|
unidentified
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What other jobs have you had over the years? | |
| So I've, as I said, I've served in all three branches of government and I've taught constitutional law, which has come in very handy already in this first month on the job. | ||
| I had an opportunity to serve as a law clerk to Justice Stephen Breyer and to then Chief Judge Merrick Garland. | ||
| So I've worked in our courts, including at our Supreme Court, and I've worked in the executive branch too. | ||
| I served at the Department of Justice, including in the antitrust division, where we were really focused on making the American economy work for hardworking people, small businesses, workers, farmers, and consumers at a time when we see more consolidation and really high prices that are causing people in my state a lot of pain. | ||
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You've also spent time in the intelligence field. | |
| Tell us about that part of your career. | ||
| Yeah, I served 11 years as an intelligence officer in the Navy Reserve, which was an incredible opportunity to serve our country. | ||
| And I'm very honored to be serving on the Armed Services Committee here in the House. | ||
| I think that there's a lot of work we can do on a bipartisan basis to continue to support our service members, their families, and our veterans. | ||
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All of those roles and assignments you've had, what are you most proud of in your career up to this point? | |
| You know, honestly, I'm focused on what I can do in the days ahead. | ||
| And at a time when faith in government has really been lost by a lot of people, what brings me to this work is a deep belief, a deep love of my state, a love of our country, and a real belief that government can and really must serve the people and deliver. | ||
| And so I've been so lucky to have had the opportunity to serve our country in a variety of roles. | ||
| But the through line has been that I'm always looking ahead to what I can really do. | ||
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Have you always thought about political office or when did that become part of the picture for you? | |
| You know, as I said, my mom ran for the seat. | ||
| And so, and I started my career working in the United States Congress. | ||
| I honestly really didn't consider deeply the possibility of running myself until this seat came open. | ||
| And it was a 181-day sprint on the campaign trail. | ||
| But what I'll tell you is no one does democracy better than the people of New Hampshire. | ||
| And part of what made me a much better representative to have gone through the campaign process because I get the best questions. | ||
| The people of New Hampshire ask good and hard-hitting questions growing up there. | ||
| You know, you really do learn how to grill a candidate before you learn how to grill a hot dog. | ||
| And I was grilled and I'm still grilled every day. | ||
| And it's part of the job. | ||
| It's part of what I love about it. | ||
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Were you always a Democrat and how did you know? | |
| You know, I was raised in a family of Republicans and Independents and I've worked for an Independent, a Republican, and a Democrat. | ||
| New Hampshire is a very independent state, and I've always tried to go to places and work with people who share my values. | ||
| I was really proud to work for Senator John McCain. | ||
| You know, I didn't vote for him for president, but he hired me, in part because he really wanted to foster a kind of team where people pushed back. | ||
| And he would often say that he was New Hampshire senator from Arizona. | ||
| He loved New Hampshire, I think, because he saw in us that independent spirit and that commitment to putting country over party. | ||
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Looking at your work ahead, I did read an article in which you were quoted, where you were quoting the late Senator Ted Kennedy about how to think about this place, how to think about Washington and working with the other side. | |
| What did he say? | ||
| Well, Senator Kennedy would talk about finding the 30%. | ||
| You might disagree with someone on 70% of the issues that you're working on, but find the 30% where you can really agree and get the job done. | ||
| You know, these days, 30% is a luxury. | ||
| It's often that we're looking for the 3% or even the 0.3%, but that is what I'm always looking for because this job, you know, we have a more closely divided House of Representatives than we've seen in a generation. | ||
| And the opportunity here is to really find ways to deliver for the people of New Hampshire. | ||
| And that's exactly what I'm trying to do every minute of every day. | ||
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As we wrap up, I'll point out that you are married to Jake Sullivan. | |
| Remind our C-SPAN viewers who Jake Sullivan is, and how did you meet? | ||
| Well, Jake and I met when I was actually working in the United States Senate and at the time, so I was working in Congress and he was working in the executive branch. | ||
| We met actually at a security conference and Jake and I share a lot of things in common. | ||
| We're both basically middle children. | ||
| I'm the middle child in a family of three kids. | ||
| He's basically in the middle in a family of five. | ||
| We both love this country and we met when we were serving it. |