[0:00]And I wanted to take today not to just speak about the news of the day, but about something
[0:05]deeper about our democracy.
[0:07]Obviously, very disappointing that Pam Bondi didn't come today, and we're going to be
[0:14]working to make sure in a bipartisan way that her deposition gets rescheduled or
[0:21]she will be held in contempt and we have the votes to do that.
[0:24]And I want to speak more broadly about what the Epstein class means for our democracy and
[0:32]what the way forward is.
[0:34]We meet at a time of crisis in self-government.
[0:39]Cynicism and even nihilism has taken hold of many corners of our nation.
[0:44]People are losing faith in liberal democracy itself in terms of having the ability to
[0:51]deliver.
[0:52]Seventy years ago, John F. Kennedy declared that an American president shouldn't mindlessly
[0:59]follow the pope.
[1:01]Today Donald Trump is mindlessly bickering with the pope, choosing hate over humanity,
[1:10]war over peace.
[1:12]How far have we fallen?
[1:15]Meanwhile, the American dream is out of reach for most of our citizens.
[1:20]70 percent say they don't longer believe in the American dream.
[1:24]Powerful economic forces of globalization and automation seem beyond their control, shaping
[1:30]their destinies while struggles go unnoticed.
[1:34]More troubling, perhaps most troubling, there is growing doubt about whether our nation
[1:39]can have a common national purpose again.
[1:43]Americans simply do not trust government because they see it captured by big money
[1:48]and by the powerful.
[1:50]They see the impunity of people like Pam Bondi not showing up even when Congress subpoenas
[1:55]them.
[1:56]And nothing encapsulates this sense of injustice more than what I call the up-steam class.
[2:02]This is a group of elites who operate outside the law.
[2:06]When people see powerful men abusing and trafficking young girls without consequence,
[2:12]it shakes something fundamental.
[2:14]They have seen the callowness, immaturity, hedonism, venality, rootlessness, and immorality
[2:23]of our governing class, people who chose being part of a network instead of speaking
[2:27]up against the abuse of young girls.
[2:31]And many are asking themselves, if these elite can get away with that, what can't
[2:35]they get away with?
[2:37]They see elite indifference and impunity has led to wealth piling up in the hands
[2:42]of a few in a few places, while the vast majority of this country has faced stagnation and
[2:48]struggling for economic security.
[2:52]Workers and communities have been treated as dispensable, just like these young girls
[2:56]were in the up-steam matter.
[2:59]Fortunes have been built on a foundation of offshoring jobs, automating plants,
[3:04]liquidating companies, buying back stock, and of course harvesting all of our data.
[3:11]Under this, 19 billionaires hold over $3 trillion in wealth, 12.5% of our entire economy.
[3:21]This is three times the concentration, three times the concentration of the Gilded
[3:27]Age, where we had Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Morgan, and Carnegie.
[3:32]We are in a new Gilded Age.
[3:35]The question is no longer, are you better off than you were four years ago.
[3:40]For many, it's, are you better off than you were four weeks ago.
[3:45]Decades ago, like scholars like William Julius Wilson, warned about black job loss hollowing
[3:51]out our inner cities in places like Philadelphia and Milwaukee.
[3:55]Too few listened.
[3:57]Later, economists like Ann Case and Agnes Deaton showed how economic despair was spreading
[4:03]in white working class communities.
[4:05]We still did not act.
[4:08]Well now the concern has hit the professional class.
[4:11]I was just up at Brown University and I asked how many of the folks there are concerned
[4:17]about getting a job in the future.
[4:20]Almost all the hands went up.
[4:22]Even Ivy Legalers and their parents are concerned.
[4:26]A society fearing its future is a society that is in decline.
[4:31]We do not need to be a nation in fear.
[4:34]So where do we go from here?
[4:36]We cannot go back to the days before Trump.
[4:40]That led to a Democratic Party that had an approval rating of 27 percent.
[4:46]How and why should we go back to a party or a politics that got us two terms of
[4:53]Donald Trump?
[4:55]We cannot simply resort to incrementalism or this fashionable nudges of a broken
[5:02]system.
[5:03]There was a paper written about let's just nudge things in the government.
[5:07]It was heralded as some great academic insight.
[5:11]The era of nudges and incrementalism are over.
[5:15]We need a new generation of leadership and we need bold, ambitious legislation.
[5:21]The most bold and ambitious programmatic agenda of a generation.
[5:24]I call it a new economic patriotism.
[5:28]I am for Team America.
[5:31]This is a comprehensive new economic vision, a new deal for this era, a freedom budget
[5:38]for this century, a combination of what FDR proposed and Bayard Rustin proposed for
[5:45]our time.
[5:46]Not extractive capitalism, but patriotic productive free enterprise that leaves no
[5:50]community behind.
[5:52]When Europe was devastated after World War II, George C. Marshall developed a
[5:56]plan for reindustrialization of Europe.
[5:59]Today we need a 21st century Marshall Plan for the middle class and working class of
[6:04]America, mobilizing business, workers, universities and government to rebuild
[6:09]struggling communities and address our economic divide.
[6:13]Here's what that means.
[6:15]First, it means jobs.
[6:18]And if the president wants to tweet out on truth social like he did with Warren,
[6:22]this is what I want him to focus on.
[6:24]We need a work for America program.
[6:28]Modeled on the Works Progress Administration that created over 8.5 million jobs under the
[6:34]Roosevelt Administration.
[6:36]Here's how it would work.
[6:37]Every young person out of high school or college would have the chance to do work
[6:41]that is deeply meaningful.
[6:43]Rebuilding communities, providing care services, working on national technology
[6:49]projects, making government agencies user friendly, training in industries of the
[6:53]future.
[6:54]You'd get a job right after high school or college.
[6:57]And it would be for a few years.
[6:59]Young people could work in their own communities or they could work in a
[7:02]community far away from where they grew up.
[7:05]Building bonds of social cohesion that have been missing in our country.
[7:09]After a few years of service, they would build real world skills that
[7:13]translate directly into strong private sector careers.
[7:18]It becomes a civic equivalent of military service, highly valued by
[7:22]employers and a proven pathway to opportunity.
[7:26]Second, we need investment.
[7:29]We will create a historic national industrial bank to invest in critical
[7:34]technologies that will define the future.
[7:37]Semiconductors, rare earths, advanced manufacturing, key starting materials for
[7:42]drugs, medical innovation, modern steel, robotics, ship building and more.
[7:47]And it will meet the test of the private sector with critical investment
[7:52]from the federal government in the industrialized areas like Johnstown.
[7:56]Like Lorraine, Ohio.
[7:58]Like Milwaukee.
[8:00]This isn't invoking distant memory.
[8:01]You don't have to go all the way back to Bill Knudsen and FDR.
[8:05]We did it recently with the CHIPS Act that I helped write a few years ago.
[8:09]Now we must do it for other critical technologies across this country.
[8:13]Third, we need to make the care economy a national priority.
[8:18]Child care, elder care, home care are not just services.
[8:23]They are the backbone of a humane society.
[8:25]And they also happen to be good paying jobs that AI can't do or
[8:29]that can't be outsourced.
[8:31]These could be the backbone of jobs in many communities that are struggling and
[8:36]deindustrialized.
[8:37]Fourth, we need to make sure America has modern skills for
[8:41]the economy of the future.
[8:43]We need to form a nationwide system of trade schools and
[8:46]tech institutes in this country.
[8:48]That means 1,000 new trade schools for jobs of HVAC technicians,
[8:52]electricians, cosmetologists, drone operators, robotic technicians.
[8:57]Young trades people there will learn how to use technology and
[9:00]AI to do their crafts.
[9:02]And tech institutes across HBCUs and public universities in this country.
[9:07]We did this with a tech-wise program that I launched with Google,
[9:10]NVIDIA, and Zoom.
[9:12]We provided nine month courses, $5,000 scholarships,
[9:15]ten hours a week leading to 75 to $100,000 jobs in rural Iowa,
[9:20]in South Carolina, in central Pennsylvania.
[9:23]We need to scale that across this country.
[9:26]We need people who are gonna be helping the next generation get the jobs of
[9:30]the future while being able to stay in their communities.
[9:33]Fifth, we must give workers ownership.
[9:35]AI creates a capital biased world with exaggerated returns to shareholders.
[9:40]One third of the nation's wealth originates in my district,
[9:42]$20 trillion in my district, $70 trillion stock market.
[9:47]Well, paying workers a living wage is necessary, but it's not enough.
[9:51]They must share in the company's profits, either through stock or
[9:55]defined benefits.
[9:56]If workers are the most productive ever, they must be compensated to match
[10:00]that and have shorter work weeks, time off,
[10:03]and actual compensation in the profits of the AI economy.
[10:07]Good jobs and worker ownerships is a starting point, but
[10:10]in the richest nation in history,
[10:12]no American should be worrying about the basic necessities of life.
[10:16]This was basically the freedom budget.
[10:18]That is why we need an economic bill of rights for our time.
[10:22]The moment has finally come for national health insurance.
[10:26]Why?
[10:26]Because people now realize you cannot have healthcare linked to your job,
[10:31]not at a time where your job may change or where you may lose your job.
[10:35]We need Medicare for all.
[10:37]That's a better system with better outcomes where healthcare is guaranteed
[10:42]to every single person from the day they are born.
[10:45]For our young people, to assure career opportunity is not limited by your
[10:49]family's wealth, we need free college and free trade schools.
[10:53]Let me be very clear, we could pay for all of free college and
[10:56]free trade schools in America a thousand new trade schools for
[11:00]the time that we have been in Iran.
[11:02]And I'm tired of senators in my own party saying, well,
[11:06]we got to read the president's budget before we know that it is wrong to
[11:09]have a $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget.
[11:12]What do they want to read?
[11:14]How much defense pork is going to come to their state?
[11:17]How much defense pork is going to come to their district?
[11:19]Let me tell you, I don't need to read that.
[11:21]We need to be no, absolutely no, because that money
[11:26]is not helping the American people.
[11:28]We need a democratic party that is actually going to stand for
[11:31]investment in our communities and
[11:34]not for a bloated defense budget and wars overseas.
[11:38]We also need, of course, a housing plan to build more housing,
[11:42]cap rents, and assist first-time home buyers with $50,000 for
[11:47]their down payment, money that we could get if we weren't spending on wars,
[11:51]and a bloated Pentagon budget.
[11:53]And we need child care at $10 a day.
[11:56]We had universal child care with the 3,000 war nurseries when
[11:59]Roosevelt was president.
[12:00]We can have universal child care, $10 a day,
[12:03]paying child care workers $25 in 2026.
[12:08]How do we pay for all of this?
[12:09]We need to make different choices.
[12:11]Cut the wasteful spending.
[12:12]Vote no on this bloated Pentagon budget.
[12:15]Consider that every bomb we drop overseas is a student who does not get
[12:19]a scholarship, a rural hospital that is not staying open.
[12:22]Child care and parents were not able to get child care.
[12:26]I've got to admit, I basically borrowed that,
[12:30]in my own words, from Dwight Eisenhower's crossifying speech,
[12:34]which John Nichols sent to me.
[12:36]But you could read that whole speech today, be relevant today,
[12:39]that we should be spending in our communities, in America,
[12:43]for child care, health care, housing, and our jobs,
[12:48]instead of the Pentagon bloat that we have,
[12:51]which is basically getting us into war without helping Americans.
[12:55]Let me close with a few thoughts.
[12:57]I'm not calling for bloated government.
[13:00]I'm calling for dynamic government.
[13:02]Working with the private sector, protecting workers, driving innovation,
[13:06]generating results, not waste.
[13:08]Remember, it was American taxpayer-funded technology
[13:12]that helped create the current markets in my district
[13:14]that have generated so much wealth.
[13:16]1969, it was NSF that funded the Internet from UCLA to Stanford.
[13:21]It was Dartmouth and Stanford and MIT in the 50s and 60s
[13:25]that developed AI, developed GPS, developed the mouse.
[13:28]That was all government-led funding.
[13:31]So I'm tired of people saying that government is bureaucratic and inefficient.
[13:34]We need smart, dynamic government.
[13:37]And I say to those who have done well,
[13:39]if America has been good to you, then you must do good for America.
[13:44]That is why we need a billionaires' tax.
[13:46]That is why we need people who have done so well in this country
[13:49]because of taxpayer investments to give so that we can have jobs
[13:54]and economic security for everyone.
[13:57]It is patriotic to pay our fair share.
[14:01]This is not anti-business. It is pro-America.
[14:04]I'm passionate about this new economic vision
[14:07]because I've seen what this country can be.
[14:09]I grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
[14:12]My neighbors were electricians, nurses, teachers, HVAC technicians, doctors.
[14:18]You know, there was a pool at the end of the street.
[14:21]We knew that the kid's dad had a job as a hotshot at some big corporation.
[14:25]We all went to that house to hang out and be in the pool,
[14:28]but we played street hockey together,
[14:30]collected baseball cards together, saw Rocky movies together.
[14:34]And we came here, my parents came here believing in America.
[14:40]We were a nation brimming with confidence.
[14:42]Kennedy had called for us to go to the moon.
[14:44]This country was on the move with energy, preeminence and science.
[14:49]I went to public school.
[14:50]I had coaches who believed in me even though I could not hit.
[14:53]They said, Rope hits, he goes plays, set knife.
[14:57]Kids used to chant, watch the bunt.
[14:59]But I had teachers who believed in me
[15:02]and they said I could do anything in America.
[15:04]And I believed them and I still do.
[15:07]I want young people to have the chances I did.
[15:11]I want American families to have the chances this country gave my family.
[15:15]If we bring economic hope and prosperity to every neighborhood and community
[15:20]for those left out, for those who have given up,
[15:22]for those who are cynical and barely hanging on,
[15:25]we can rebuild faith in our democratic project.
[15:29]Right now, let me just be blunt.
[15:31]We have too many elected officials
[15:33]who are completely oblivious and unprepared for what is coming.
[15:37]They may be good and adept at talking about the news of the day,
[15:40]but they lack a vision for what needs to be done
[15:43]for the future of this country.
[15:44]The people of the United States need real leadership
[15:47]and a government that understands what the future is.
[15:50]Economic renewal is our new national purpose.
[15:54]We can then build a cohesive, multiracial democracy
[15:58]where every American has dignity, independence, and security.
[16:02]America is desperate to be proud again.
[16:05]America wants to be a force for good again,
[16:08]for ourselves and for the world.
[16:10]With bold leadership and a new economic patriotism,
[16:14]we will take back this nation from the grips
[16:17]of extractive capitalism of an Epstein class
[16:20]and an American people who will build the future.
[16:23]Thank you very much.
[16:33]Well, thank you for joining us today, Congressman,
[16:36]and for outlining your economic policy vision.
[16:41]I want to start, though, with Pam Bondi.
[16:44]She didn't testify today.
[16:46]You mentioned it briefly at the beginning of your remarks,
[16:49]but if you could elaborate a little bit,
[16:50]what are the next steps with her?
[16:52]She's not attorney general.
[16:53]She said she was subpoenaed as attorney general.
[16:55]She's now a private citizen, basically.
[16:58]What do you do from here?
[17:00]Well, she's wrong.
[17:01]Nancy Mace and I wrote the subpoena,
[17:03]so I know what's in the subpoena.
[17:05]The subpoena was for Pam Bondi as an individual,
[17:08]not as attorney general.
[17:10]And we have the votes to subpoena her again,
[17:13]if it comes down to it, or to hold her in contempt.
[17:16]Remember, there were the votes
[17:18]to hold President Clinton in contempt
[17:21]when he was not coming and cooperating with the committee.
[17:23]President Clinton is not in office,
[17:25]but he was relevant to the investigation,
[17:27]and certainly Pam Bondi is relevant to the investigation.
[17:31]Nancy Mace and I wrote to Comer,
[17:33]saying that we expect him to reschedule this.
[17:36]He is going to try to reschedule it.
[17:38]We need to let that process play out.
[17:40]If not, we will have the votes to hold her in contempt,
[17:44]and that is something that I don't think she would want.
[17:47]So I fully expect that she will come in.
[17:49]This is just a delay tactic.
[17:52]In the Trump administration,
[17:55]we've seen a lot of disruption
[17:58]on legal procedures and so forth.
[18:04]Do you think contempt will get her to appear,
[18:08]or in this atmosphere, will that stick?
[18:13]Well, look, Donald Trump
[18:14]is not gonna be president forever.
[18:16]Some people are figuring that out sooner than later.
[18:20]He's under 40% approval.
[18:22]His allies, like Orban, are losing.
[18:25]I mean, I'm hoping JD Vance actually goes in campaigns
[18:27]for everyone in the United States.
[18:33]He's losing a grip on his power.
[18:35]And do I think Pam Bondi would be prosecuted
[18:39]for contempt by Todd Blanch
[18:42]or the president's new attorney general?
[18:43]I don't.
[18:44]Do I believe that she would be prosecuted
[18:46]for contempt by the new president
[18:47]or will be a Democrat in 2029?
[18:49]I do.
[18:50]So people who are violating the law
[18:54]need to think that in three years
[18:56]we're gonna have a new president,
[18:58]and that president is gonna hold the elites accountable.
[19:01]So my hope is that she will recognize
[19:04]that compliance with the law is what is required.
[19:08]The Clintons did, and that was,
[19:10]President Clinton was a two-term president,
[19:12]and he didn't wanna be held in contempt.
[19:14]So I hope Pam Bondi will appear
[19:17]and it doesn't come to that.
[19:19]And if she does appear,
[19:21]what do you wanna ask her?
[19:23]What don't you know yet about the Epstein files?
[19:25]I don't know a lot.
[19:27]I don't know why the three million files
[19:31]that have been held have been so blacked out,
[19:35]why the redactions took place in March
[19:40]where a lot of the names that were mentioned
[19:43]of people who were abusers, who raped young girls,
[19:47]why those are all blacked out
[19:50]and even members of Congress can't see them.
[19:52]They claim, oh, this is to protect survivors,
[19:55]but you don't need to blank out
[19:58]three million pages of documents
[20:00]just to protect survivors' names.
[20:02]That would be the first question.
[20:03]Why aren't they releasing the actual documents
[20:06]where most of the people are named
[20:07]who raped and abused these girls?
[20:09]The second thing I don't know
[20:10]is why she refused to meet with survivors.
[20:12]Why not meet with survivors' lawyers?
[20:14]Just from protecting yourself,
[20:15]if I were attorney general, I would say,
[20:18]well, let me get the survivors' groups in.
[20:20]Let's have a process
[20:22]that the survivors' lawyers agree to
[20:23]so that if there are any honest mistakes,
[20:26]we could have had the survivors' buy-in
[20:28]and I wouldn't get blamed,
[20:29]but they refused to meet any of the survivors' lawyers.
[20:31]They refused to sit down with the survivors.
[20:33]Why?
[20:34]Third, why are they not starting investigations
[20:38]in a criminal matter with people
[20:41]with serious allegations like Les Wexner,
[20:45]like Leon Blatt?
[20:48]I was asked recently about the very disturbing allegations
[20:52]against Congressman Swalwell
[20:53]and how do I square that with the Epstein class?
[20:56]And I said, there needs to be accountability,
[20:57]whether you're a member of Congress
[20:59]or whether you raped or abused,
[21:00]allegedly, girls on Epstein's Island.
[21:03]But the Manhattan DA has, within days,
[21:07]opened up an investigation into Congressman Swalwell,
[21:10]and yet, for years,
[21:11]we don't have a single investigation into Leon Blatt
[21:13]and into Les Wexner.
[21:16]Why?
[21:17]Why is there no investigation?
[21:19]How powerful are these people
[21:20]that you've not opened up a single investigation
[21:23]for prosecution of the people mentioned
[21:25]in the Epstein files?
[21:28]Are there any people who have been mentioned
[21:34]who could be highlighted further
[21:36]than they have been so far?
[21:39]I mean, there's a question about
[21:43]whether members of Congress could read names
[21:46]on the House floor of some of the people
[21:49]who are implicated in the files,
[21:52]and yet, that hasn't happened.
[21:55]There was a question from the audience.
[21:57]Do you have a response?
[21:58]I tried that.
[21:58]I tried that.
[21:59]And we had two names that I revealed with Massey.
[22:02]One was the Dubai Port CEO,
[22:06]and one was Les Wexner.
[22:07]But the challenge is that members of Congress
[22:10]that shouldn't be naming names
[22:13]where their context is not clear,
[22:16]because four of those names that I read,
[22:18]it turned out that, well,
[22:20]they were part of a lineup with the FBI,
[22:23]and we never got that clarification or context
[22:26]from the Justice Department.
[22:27]So the problem is that they put members of Congress
[22:30]and the public in a terrible spot
[22:31]where they have not been transparent.
[22:34]They have not been able to identify who these people are.
[22:40]So you don't want members of Congress
[22:41]just naming people in the Epstein files
[22:44]without any context.
[22:46]There are a lot of people mentioned in the Epstein files
[22:48]who have no guilt,
[22:50]and it shouldn't be a witch hunt.
[22:52]The problem is that there are a number of people
[22:56]who raped or abused these girls or covered it up,
[22:58]and those people aren't being held accountable.
[23:00]And the person who confirmed this
[23:02]is First Lady Melania Trump,
[23:04]because while her president
[23:05]is calling all of this a hoax,
[23:07]she said very clearly,
[23:09]quote, Epstein was not alone.
[23:12]That is the point that the survivors
[23:14]and Massey and I have been making for months.
[23:17]He was not alone.
[23:18]This was not just Delaine Maxwell and Epstein.
[23:20]There are a lot of other men who were involved,
[23:22]and they need to be prosecuted.
[23:25]Right.
[23:27]Staying with Epstein for just a couple more questions,
[23:30]another one from the audience.
[23:32]Do you see any,
[23:33]and this has come up a lot in sort of the Mililu
[23:38]that we have here with Iran and Epstein
[23:40]going on at the same time.
[23:41]I knew it would be a bit of a switch.
[23:42]I knew people wanted to talk about Epstein,
[23:43]which I'm happy to do.
[23:44]And then I said,
[23:45]but I'm gonna push my economic vision anyway.
[23:47]I'm gonna get to that.
[23:48]I will get to that.
[23:49]But do you see any relationship in the timing
[23:52]of President Trump's foreign policy announcements
[23:54]and actions like those in Iran
[23:56]with the timing of breaking scandals
[23:58]related to the Epstein files?
[24:00]As a way to create distractions?
[24:02]You know, I saw two memes online.
[24:05]First, when the president went into Iran,
[24:08]I saw war a way to distract from Epstein files.
[24:11]And then when Melania Trump made her statement,
[24:14]I saw a meme saying,
[24:16]Epstein files in a way to distract from war.
[24:18]The reality is that they're both terribly unpopular
[24:22]and wrong policies.
[24:24]The Epstein class cover-up
[24:26]betrays a lack of transparency from this administration.
[24:29]And this war also betrays a lack of transparency
[24:32]from this administration.
[24:33]I don't believe that the president went to war
[24:36]just to get the Epstein matter off the front pages,
[24:39]though it had that impact of reducing searches.
[24:43]I believe that he went to war
[24:46]because he was talked into it by hawks
[24:49]and it's led to a disaster with gas prices up,
[24:52]with the Strait of Hormuz more controlled by Iran,
[24:54]by a more hardline regime in Iran,
[24:57]by 13 service members dead,
[24:59]by thousands killed in that region.
[25:02]But I don't believe it was just to get the Epstein files
[25:05]off the front page.
[25:07]Right, and we will pivot to economics.
[25:10]You can ask more questions, I'm just joking around.
[25:12]No, no, I know, I know,
[25:12]but actually this is where I wanted to pivot anyway.
[25:15]The midterm elections are coming up,
[25:17]important for your party in terms of trying
[25:19]to take back the House and perhaps the Senate.
[25:22]Epstein versus affordability
[25:25]or Epstein versus economic equality,
[25:27]which one do you think is more important
[25:30]for the campaign, for House candidates,
[25:34]Democratic House candidates
[25:36]to emphasize on the campaign trail?
[25:38]The point I tried to make is that they're connected
[25:40]and here's how they're connected.
[25:42]The Epstein class has led to a system
[25:45]of extracted capitalism
[25:47]that basically has been indifferent to the working class.
[25:52]And if you say, okay, I wanna reduce the cost
[25:54]of childcare and I wanna reduce the cost of healthcare
[25:57]and I wanna reduce the cost of education,
[26:00]but you're not talking about the role
[26:03]of big money in politics,
[26:04]you're not talking about the role
[26:06]of private health insurance companies in politics,
[26:08]you're not talking about the role
[26:10]of a group of people who have rigged the rules
[26:12]to benefit themselves, then the American people
[26:15]aren't gonna believe your promises.
[26:17]So I believe what we need to do is say,
[26:19]yes, affordability, we need an affordability vision,
[26:22]but the reason we're in this position
[26:25]is that we've had a group of governing elites
[26:27]of both parties that have shafted the working class
[26:31]and that have created two tiers of justice
[26:33]and two Americas, two economies.
[26:35]And that what we need to do is have an economic vision
[26:40]that's actually for working in middle class people.
[26:42]So I don't think that the Epstein issue
[26:46]is sufficient in enough itself,
[26:48]but when it's an explanation in part
[26:51]for why people are struggling,
[26:53]even though they're working hard,
[26:55]and it's not because they're not hardworking,
[26:58]it's not because they're doing things wrong,
[26:59]it's because the system is rigged against them,
[27:02]then I think it offers a compelling vision
[27:05]for why we should trust Democrats to get back power.
[27:09]You called in your speech for bold, ambitious legislation
[27:13]what you called a new economic patriotism,
[27:16]and you drew a parallel to the New Deal
[27:19]and President Roosevelt,
[27:23]your Vice Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
[27:27]What would you say to people who would say to you,
[27:32]this is an idea, these are liberal ideas
[27:36]for big government?
[27:38]That's probably gonna hear that.
[27:40]Well, first of all, the last time we tried,
[27:42]a Democrat who ran on the New Deal, he won four terms.
[27:44]So it was not a bad strategy.
[27:47]Never understood why we didn't try it longer.
[27:50]But the second thing I would say is,
[27:52]my vision is for a dynamic government,
[27:55]not a bloated government.
[27:56]I mean, part of the problem with liberalism
[27:57]has been a sense where government is just incremental,
[28:01]the government is just trying to needle around
[28:04]with the right type of tax incentive,
[28:05]and that hasn't affected people's lives.
[28:08]I think a government that actually delivered would,
[28:11]both in terms of getting national healthcare,
[28:14]in terms of expanding Medicare,
[28:15]in terms of having $10 a day childcare,
[28:18]in terms of having a free public college.
[28:20]Instead, what we do is we have these 50 page bills,
[28:23]which is like, okay, you'll get childcare
[28:25]if your income is between 175,000 and 225,000
[28:29]with a tax credit for this,
[28:30]and people have no idea what you're doing.
[28:32]Be simple, be bold, be direct,
[28:34]put money in people's pockets.
[28:36]I think that will restore confidence in the government
[28:39]so it's not as technocratic and it's actually delivering.
[28:42]And secondly, bring people from business into government.
[28:45]I do not believe that you don't have business leaders
[28:48]in government.
[28:49]Bill Knutson was the CEO of General Motors,
[28:52]and FDR brought him into government.
[28:54]I believe we can have a dynamic government
[28:56]that has metrics, that has results,
[28:58]that is working to create new jobs
[29:00]and re-industrialize this country.
[29:02]So I want a dynamic, innovative, experimentalist government
[29:07]that is tackling the broad issues of our time.
[29:11]Well, what would you say to people,
[29:14]to fellow Democrats who say that the way
[29:16]to take back the House and Senate this year
[29:19]is to run toward the middle and from the middle?
[29:24]It sounds like you're further to the left.
[29:27]I mean, dynamic government rather than big government,
[29:29]okay, we'll stipulate that.
[29:31]But still, people would say that the ideas
[29:34]that you laid out here are more to the left
[29:37]of the moderate Democrats than are to the left
[29:43]of moderate Democrats, but yet it's the moderate track
[29:47]that's gonna lead to electoral success.
[29:49]Well, it's gonna lead to electoral success,
[29:51]and I appreciate that argument is the independents.
[29:53]And where are the disaffected Trump voters?
[29:56]Where are the independents?
[29:57]But my argument is I've actually succeeded
[30:00]in building a coalition with disaffected Trump voters.
[30:04]I got the Epstein files passed.
[30:05]What other Democrat, and I say this with humility,
[30:09]has passed any legislation in the last 10 years
[30:14]with a coalition of Trump voters?
[30:15]A single, name a single substantive piece
[30:18]of legislation that has passed
[30:19]with a coalition of Trump voters.
[30:21]I would argue what Massey and I have done
[30:23]is the only time that that has happened.
[30:25]And you look at what I just last night,
[30:27]it was with Marjorie Taylor Greene.
[30:28]Some people are upset.
[30:30]Why would you go on with Marjorie Taylor Greene?
[30:31]The reality is I am building an alliance
[30:34]for an anti-war message, an anti-Epstein class message,
[30:39]and a pro-working class agenda
[30:41]that actually will get us a lot of the disaffected
[30:44]Trump voters in de-industrialized communities
[30:46]in western Pennsylvania, in places in Ohio,
[30:48]in Wisconsin, in Michigan.
[30:51]And if you want instead kind of the mansion dole vision
[30:54]of let's just have status quo government,
[30:56]but tinker with it and find some bipartisan deals
[31:00]so we can get 2% child tax credit for every family.
[31:03]Well, that's gonna get loosed
[31:06]to a populist person on the right.
[31:08]So I believe what we need is a bold vision on the left.
[31:12]It's kind of remarkable to me.
[31:15]Donald Trump gets up there on these podiums
[31:17]and he says, I'm going to conquer Greenland.
[31:20]And we criticize him.
[31:22]And then someone gets up here and says,
[31:23]okay, I won Medicare for all.
[31:25]And we're saying, well, that's too radical.
[31:27]That's too bold.
[31:27]What about conquering Greenland?
[31:29]The guy who's saying conquer Greenland
[31:31]won two elections for president.
[31:32]The people who are out there talking
[31:34]in technocratic gobbledygook keep losing.
[31:38]Maybe we should be simple, bold, aspirational,
[31:42]not willing to take risk, willing to take risk,
[31:45]willing to get the people to believe
[31:48]that the government's actually going
[31:49]to try to solve big problems.
[31:53]Bold visions on the left.
[31:56]To what extent do you, does your vision overlap
[31:59]or coincide with, say, Senator Warren's,
[32:02]which she laid out here in January
[32:04]in this very room, actually?
[32:06]And do you see, is there competition
[32:11]for the bold vision on the left?
[32:13]I think Senator Warren has offered incredible ideas.
[32:16]I think she is one of the intellectual leaders
[32:20]of what the bold vision should look like.
[32:24]And I have been influenced by her ideas
[32:28]when it comes to the types of financial regulations
[32:32]that we need, when it comes to the types
[32:33]of antitrust issues we need.
[32:35]What I add, in my view to it,
[32:38]is a understanding of the economic future,
[32:42]of the future of AI and technology
[32:46]and how we're going to build the economic security
[32:50]and economic success of this country
[32:52]and every community for the future.
[32:54]So I would bring a understanding
[32:56]of where the economy is headed
[32:58]and how we actually achieve that for our time.
[33:01]And I also believe that we share a fundamental view
[33:04]of a new social contract,
[33:06]that we need to be taxing these billionaires
[33:08]to be supporting the new social contract
[33:13]of healthcare, housing, and education.
[33:15]But I'm a guy who's doing that
[33:18]with more billionaires in my district
[33:19]than anyone in any other district.
[33:22]And that, in my view, is a sense, okay,
[33:24]if Kana can say, let's tax these billionaires
[33:27]and fund healthcare and childcare,
[33:29]and somehow his district keeps sending him back,
[33:32]maybe this is a majoritarian message.
[33:34]There are a lot of things you can call me,
[33:36]but you're not gonna be able to call the guy
[33:38]who represents a district
[33:40]with $20 trillion of socialists.
[33:42]There are a lot of critiques you can make about me,
[33:43]but you're not gonna be able to tell a guy
[33:46]who just did a fireside chat with Jensen Wong
[33:48]about the future of AI that I don't understand
[33:50]economic wealth generation of the modern economy.
[33:53]But you know what, I don't want an economy
[33:55]which is gonna generate the wealth for billionaires.
[33:57]I have an actual roadmap of how we're gonna get
[34:00]the kids I grew up with in Pennsylvania,
[34:02]economic security and prosperity
[34:04]based on the modern economy.
[34:06]So I would say I'm a beneficiary
[34:10]of the work Elizabeth Warren has done,
[34:12]and part of the next rung of the relay
[34:14]in taking that along with people like FDR
[34:18]and Baird Rustin, and articulating
[34:20]what a new deal for our time should look like.
[34:23]So bold visions of course require money,
[34:27]and to put this in context,
[34:29]we're in the Trump administration,
[34:31]we're seeing the debt and deficit skyrocket.
[34:34]So under a Republican Congress,
[34:37]we're seeing it go up and up and up.
[34:39]Good financial reporter's gotta ask about this.
[34:42]But so we'll put that out there as context,
[34:45]but you talked about bold visions.
[34:48]You have to pay for those.
[34:49]When you talked about paying for them
[34:51]right here at this podium,
[34:53]you said cut waste and fraud,
[34:56]cut the Pentagon budget.
[34:58]You didn't mention entitlements like Social Security,
[35:01]and in fact you called it, or Medicare,
[35:03]you called for expanding Medicare for all.
[35:07]Most budget analysts say that
[35:09]without touching entitlements,
[35:11]we'll never get the country's fiscal house in order.
[35:16]What do you say about entitlement spending?
[35:20]I disagree with that.
[35:21]Let me say, Clinton had balanced budgets in 2000.
[35:27]Then we did the war in Iraq.
[35:30]Then we did 20 year war in Afghanistan.
[35:32]Then we'd add the Bush tax breaks for the rich.
[35:36]We had the Trump tax breaks
[35:38]in the first term for the rich.
[35:40]We had the Trump tax breaks
[35:42]in the second term for the rich.
[35:43]If you just reversed all of that,
[35:45]you would get close to balanced budgets,
[35:47]not fully because we had the Great Recession
[35:49]and we had COVID.
[35:50]But a lot of the budget clause
[35:53]is because of increased defense spending
[35:56]and massive tax breaks for the wealthy.
[35:58]What I would say on Social Security
[36:00]is I would get rid of the Social Security cap.
[36:02]So even Mitt Romney has said this.
[36:04]For people making over 400,000,
[36:06]you should tax them on their income on Social Security
[36:08]and you could pay for Social Security
[36:12]and even expand benefits.
[36:13]Why?
[36:14]Because there are people in my district,
[36:15]I just met a couple of them, seniors,
[36:17]who are struggling on a couple thousand bucks a month
[36:21]when you've got $20 trillion.
[36:23]So why wouldn't you just say,
[36:24]okay, tax the billionaires a bit more.
[36:27]Have people making over 400,000 pay Social Security tax
[36:31]so that senior family can have economic dignity.
[36:34]And the numbers would work
[36:35]if you had increase on stock buyback taxes,
[36:38]increase in the step up in basis taxes,
[36:40]the billionaire tax, defense cuts.
[36:43]You could have Social Security and expand Medicare.
[36:47]You and Senator Sanders have introduced
[36:51]a billionaires tax bill just recently.
[36:54]How does that go over in Silicon Valley?
[36:56]You've got a lot of billionaires there.
[36:58]It's meant.
[36:59]When you have town halls,
[37:01]do the tech billionaires show up
[37:03]and give you their opinion of that bill?
[37:05]No, they're keyboard warriors.
[37:07]They don't have the time
[37:08]to actually show up to a town hall.
[37:10]How beneath them to come and sit with the masses
[37:15]and stand in line to ask a question
[37:18]when they can just fund a super PAC against you.
[37:20]I mean, why would they do that?
[37:22]They just recruit candidates.
[37:24]By the way, they never run, very few from run.
[37:27]The one thing, the only thing that I agree
[37:28]with Donald Trump is when he's,
[37:30]not the only thing, but one of the few things
[37:33]I agree with Donald Trump is when he says,
[37:35]all my billionaire friends,
[37:37]none of them have the guts to run.
[37:39]They have no idea how hard this is.
[37:41]They all think they can be president
[37:43]when they look in the mirror
[37:43]because they probably couldn't run for dog catcher.
[37:46]And most of them don't.
[37:47]They just write a check
[37:48]because they don't wanna do the hard work of democracy.
[37:51]But the reality is that not all billionaires
[37:53]are the same, not all tech leaders are the same.
[37:55]You have some who I call economic patriots
[37:57]who understand that America's been good for them
[37:59]and they should do good for America.
[38:01]That they have made enormous amount.
[38:03]If they have 20 billion,
[38:04]asking them to give one billion
[38:06]so people can have healthcare, child care
[38:08]is not the end of the world,
[38:09]especially when their rate of return
[38:10]is between eight and 10% conservatively every year.
[38:13]Then you have others who really are opposed to that idea.
[38:18]But I wanna build a coalition of business leaders,
[38:22]faith leaders, civic leaders, young people
[38:25]to say that we need a new social contract.
[38:28]Not to disparage wealth,
[38:30]but to say once you've built wealth
[38:31]that you need to do your part, your fair part
[38:34]to help fund the rest of the country.
[38:36]Warren Buffett understands this.
[38:38]Warren Buffett understands that billionaires
[38:40]aren't paying their fair share of tax.
[38:43]Well, artificial intelligence could become a disruptor
[38:46]of the social compact and a lot of other things,
[38:48]including entry level and higher jobs.
[38:52]You represent Silicon Valley.
[38:55]What should Democrats say this fall during the campaigns,
[39:00]during their campaigns to American workers
[39:02]who are afraid that they're gonna lose their jobs to AI?
[39:06]You're right to be afraid
[39:07]and we're gonna protect you.
[39:10]We're gonna make sure that AI benefits workers,
[39:12]not billionaires.
[39:14]I'm not an AI accelerationist.
[39:16]I'm not a AI doomer, but I'm an AI democratist.
[39:20]And it would be foolish and untruthful
[39:25]to tell American workers
[39:26]whether blue color or white color not to worry.
[39:29]That's just not the truth.
[39:31]But not when you have Dario Amade from Anthropic
[39:33]saying you could have 40% unemployment
[39:35]or social dislocation.
[39:36]Not when youth unemployment is at 18% in China.
[39:40]Not when you have so many coders
[39:42]losing their jobs.
[39:43]Now, you don't have to be draconian about it.
[39:44]You need to say that Democrats
[39:46]will actually protect these jobs,
[39:48]making sure we have a human in the loop.
[39:50]That means that truck drivers need to be on trucks
[39:53]as we build technology.
[39:54]That means that there need to be bargaining power
[39:57]for workers with companies
[39:59]so that if their job is being changed,
[40:02]they're gonna get a different job
[40:03]and they're gonna not be laid off.
[40:05]That their severance, if they are laid off,
[40:08]that there is appropriate severance
[40:10]and there is appropriate worker insurance.
[40:13]And we need what I outlined, work for America,
[40:16]modeled after the Work Progress Administration.
[40:19]Imagine if you had the federal government
[40:20]saying to young people in this country,
[40:22]you can come work to rebuild our nation.
[40:25]You can go rebuild your own community.
[40:27]You can rebuild a different community.
[40:29]You can come and do a moonshot project.
[40:31]And we have hundreds of thousands of people employed,
[40:33]which is where the biggest risk of AI is
[40:35]in these entry-level jobs.
[40:36]And they're building life skills
[40:38]and they're participating in a national project
[40:41]and they're developing their resume.
[40:44]I believe those are the types of ideas
[40:46]that we need to offer.
[40:48]But I think we've gotta get beyond the AI bad, AI good.
[40:52]I mean, the American people,
[40:53]they have an emotional reaction.
[40:55]They want their leaders to offer a path forward.
[40:58]So what?
[40:59]Okay, you're saying AI bad, then what?
[41:01]What are you going to do?
[41:03]We've had so many years of sloganeering
[41:07]of people who are kind of entertainers.
[41:09]I think the American people want substance.
[41:12]They want an actual sense of how their kids' lives
[41:16]are going to be materially better in the 21st century.
[41:19]So what I would say is we need to have
[41:21]a real framework that's gonna convince people
[41:24]we understand the future and we have there a plan
[41:27]for how it benefits them.
[41:29]A follow on AI question from Ty Gram
[41:33]of the Real News Network here in the audience.
[41:36]Do you support breaking up or regulating major tech firms
[41:39]to prevent AI from creating another Epstein class?
[41:44]Yes, I mean, we're gonna need to do more than that
[41:47]to prevent an Epstein class.
[41:48]We're gonna need to have a tax on billionaires,
[41:50]but absolutely we need to have AI regulation.
[41:54]I mean, I don't even understand how this is a question.
[41:58]We have electricity and electricity is regulated.
[42:01]We have nuclear energy, nuclear energy is regulated.
[42:03]We fly on planes, great thing,
[42:05]and I'm glad there's an FAA.
[42:07]Has anyone ever been on a plane when they're like,
[42:10]wow, there are too many regulations?
[42:12]Oh, you're like, thank you, they're seat belts.
[42:15]Thank you that you have all the,
[42:16]they say the same thing over and over again
[42:19]every time you board.
[42:20]So AI, which by the founder's own belief
[42:25]is a technology with that kind of power.
[42:29]Why wouldn't you want safety regulations on it?
[42:32]Why wouldn't you wanna make sure
[42:33]there was certification and appropriate checks?
[42:36]And we should have that done
[42:38]in a federal regulatory AI agency.
[42:40]And we shouldn't have a race to the bottom with China.
[42:42]We should say, America will provide
[42:44]the safest, most excellent AI,
[42:46]where you know that the AI isn't going to take your data,
[42:49]where you know that the AI isn't gonna do crazy things.
[42:52]And if China wants to have a race to the bottom,
[42:55]let's see who the Europeans and Asians and Africans
[42:57]wanna buy the AI from.
[42:58]We should say, we will have the highest level.
[43:00]And then I think we also need open source
[43:02]so that you don't concentrate all the power
[43:05]in these companies.
[43:07]Right.
[43:10]Staying on the political questions from the audience.
[43:15]What is your strategy for overcoming
[43:17]pushback opposition from your own party?
[43:20]What about opposition from members of the Republican party?
[43:23]I don't know which will be tougher.
[43:26]Look, people like Senator Schumer need to step aside.
[43:30]The base is unhappy with the Democratic party leadership.
[43:35]They see a Democratic party
[43:37]that by definition has failed.
[43:39]You have a Donald Trump second term.
[43:44]I grew up a sports fan.
[43:45]If the Eagles kept losing,
[43:47]the Philadelphia fans are tough.
[43:48]But there are only so many times they'd say,
[43:51]okay, let's have a change.
[43:52]It's not personal.
[43:53]So my view is that where the obstacle is,
[43:57]is you've got people who have hung on too long in this town
[44:01]who are out of touch with the base.
[44:02]They're out of touch that on very simple things
[44:05]that there was genocide in Gaza.
[44:09]Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day.
[44:11]And of course what happened in Gaza
[44:14]is not comparable to what happened in the Holocaust.
[44:16]But what I take Holocaust Remembrance Day to be about
[44:20]is to be truthful about the cruelties
[44:22]that are happening today.
[44:25]And we should be clear
[44:26]that what happened with 70,000 killed in Gaza was a genocide.
[44:30]We should be clear that there shouldn't be
[44:31]no new dollar to Israel.
[44:33]We should be clear that the war is immoral and wrong.
[44:37]We should be clear that a president
[44:39]can't threaten to wipe out human civilization
[44:42]or Iranian civilization.
[44:44]Not because he didn't consult Congress
[44:47]because it's morally wrong.
[44:48]And we have a Democratic leadership
[44:51]that is not speaking with moral conviction.
[44:55]And so I would say that
[44:57]it's gonna be a fight within the party.
[45:00]I'm not one of these people,
[45:01]bite your tongue until the election
[45:04]and let's just have Kumbaya.
[45:06]I'm of the belief that we need to infuse
[45:08]this Democratic party with an energy
[45:10]and a moral conviction that that's gonna be part
[45:12]of building a bigger majority in 26
[45:14]and taking back our country in 2028.
[45:17]Speaking of members of Congress who should go though,
[45:20]another question from the audience.
[45:22]Annie Bryson of CBS News.
[45:25]In light of Congressman Gonzalez
[45:27]and Congressman Solwell's announcing their departures,
[45:30]are there more members of Congress
[45:31]that you think may need to resign?
[45:35]Let me just be clear.
[45:36]When I say that Senator Schumer
[45:38]should step aside, it's because of political leadership.
[45:40]Right, I wasn't implying, okay.
[45:44]Any personal, I have no criticism
[45:47]of his personal character.
[45:49]The, in the Congress, look,
[45:52]there are people obviously who have,
[45:56]there are others who have committed some terrible things
[45:59]and I'd be open to seeing if there are ways
[46:02]that they can resign or be expelled.
[46:04]I mean, it's a really, really sad
[46:08]what happened with Gonzalez and Solwell.
[46:11]I mean, it's against the law, the House rules
[46:14]to have any inappropriate relationship
[46:17]with any subordinate, whether it's in your office
[46:19]or any other office and that should be a bright line
[46:22]in this day.
[46:23]That doesn't mean you don't have due process.
[46:24]You just don't need to serve
[46:25]in the United States Congress.
[46:27]I mean, I'm all for having due process
[46:28]in the judicial system.
[46:29]So if there are other people who've had
[46:32]that kind of inappropriate relationship,
[46:35]then they should resign or leave.
[46:36]And certainly the, that we need to make sure
[46:42]that there's a release, I voted for it,
[46:44]of all the sexual harassment lawsuits
[46:47]that were settled.
[46:47]I mean, all of that should come out.
[46:50]Another audience question, this one about your home,
[46:52]your home state, your now home state.
[46:55]Since 2000, California has had the lowest growth rates
[46:59]in its history as a state and the pandemic
[47:01]intensified the state's population slowdown.
[47:05]However, the state's economy outperformed every other
[47:07]in the US in 2025.
[47:09]Do you think the federal government needs
[47:11]to intervene on the slowing population?
[47:15]California has the problem that the nation has
[47:18]and my district has the same problem,
[47:20]which is that the economy is really working well
[47:23]for those who are in technology,
[47:26]those who are in entertainment,
[47:28]those who are in finance.
[47:29]But it's very hard for people
[47:30]who are in the working and middle class.
[47:32]It's hard because the cost of housing is too high.
[47:34]We messed up housing policy in our state.
[47:37]It's hard because the cost of childcare is too high.
[47:40]It's hard because the cost of healthcare is too high.
[47:42]So the reason people are leaving California
[47:46]is not because, you know, Sergei Brin is leaving.
[47:49]It's not because the AI revolution
[47:51]isn't gonna happen in Silicon Valley.
[47:53]The reason people are leaving,
[47:55]if you just look at the data,
[47:56]is because they can't afford a house
[47:58]because they can't afford the cost of living.
[48:01]So what I would argue
[48:02]and one of the reasons I've supported Tom Starr
[48:03]is that we need a progressive governor in California
[48:06]who is going to have policies for universal healthcare,
[48:10]universal childcare, building new homes,
[48:13]being a YIMBY, so that we can make life better
[48:17]for the working and middle class in California.
[48:19]That is the challenge.
[48:20]Fox News gets it all wrong.
[48:21]If they were smarter about it,
[48:23]they wouldn't be focused on some exodus of business.
[48:25]They'd be focused about how is life
[48:28]for the working class in California.
[48:30]That is the issue.
[48:32]Right, YIMBY, yes, in my backyard.
[48:33]Yes.
[48:35]No, and on AI regulation,
[48:39]I just thought of the follow up I wanted to ask you earlier.
[48:41]State and federal AI regulation or just federal?
[48:46]Of course, I mean, state and federal.
[48:48]Most good federal legislation comes from state regulating
[48:52]and then taking the best from different states.
[48:55]But right now you have an administration
[48:57]that is totally accelerationist,
[48:58]that has basically given the keys of AI
[49:01]to their tech billionaire friends.
[49:04]So the only check is state regulation.
[49:07]And what type of state regulation do we need?
[49:09]Have truck drivers on trucks.
[49:11]We don't want four to five million truck drivers
[49:14]losing their jobs in this country.
[49:15]Make sure that kids are not being bombarded
[49:20]with sensational algorithms.
[49:22]Make sure that decisions about someone's healthcare,
[49:26]denials, aren't happening by algorithm.
[49:28]Make sure that someone's decision
[49:30]to be put in prison aren't happening by algorithm.
[49:32]Those are all things that can be done at a state level
[49:35]until we have a federal level of thoughtful regulation.
[49:40]Down to two final questions.
[49:41]One regular question and then kind of a fun question
[49:44]from me, we'll get to that in a moment.
[49:46]But the final question actually is from the audience
[49:49]just received, we're gonna go back
[49:50]to the Epstein files.
[49:52]How has the arrest of Andrew Mountain Windsor
[49:57]in Britain influenced Congress's outlook
[49:59]on what accountability would look like
[50:01]for the Epstein class members in America?
[50:05]I'll answer the question if you permit me
[50:06]a personal digression.
[50:10]My grandfather, as some people know,
[50:12]was part of Gandhi's independence movement.
[50:14]Went to jail in the 1930s
[50:16]and then the 1940s during Quit India.
[50:19]And so during this entire Epstein issue,
[50:24]there was a headline that I saw in Britain,
[50:27]grandfather jailed by British monarchy.
[50:30]Grandson in US Congress may bring down British monarchy.
[50:34]But I don't intend to bring down the British monarchy.
[50:37]I appreciate though that the former prince was arrested
[50:43]and that there is some accountability.
[50:45]I have made a request to King Charles
[50:47]that he meet when he comes here with the survivors,
[50:50]not to discuss the details of his brother's case,
[50:53]but to show that the modern British monarchy
[50:56]is relevant and on the side of those
[50:59]who are underprivileged and have been ignored.
[51:02]I think it would be an incredible gesture
[51:03]to show the relevance of it.
[51:05]But what is happening in Britain,
[51:07]what is happening in Norway,
[51:09]what is happening in France
[51:11]is instructive to the Congress
[51:13]in that it is embarrassing America.
[51:16]Two American Congress people got the Epstein files released
[51:19]and America has been the least nation
[51:23]to actually hold the Epstein class accountable.
[51:27]In fact, Britain is asking for the release
[51:29]of the remaining files based on the Epstein Transparency Act.
[51:32]So it should be sobering that instead of leading
[51:36]in holding the Epstein class accountable,
[51:38]we have been a laggard.
[51:39]And I believe what Britain is doing
[51:42]and other nations are doing is more reason for urgency
[51:47]in this administration to actually get justice.