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Andy Beshear Podcast
Episode 17: Governor John Bel Edwards, Winning in a Red State, the Power of Nonpartisanship, More Tariff Trouble and First Lady Britainy (+ Winnie!)
00:47:42
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- [00:08]
Andy Beshear
Welcome to the Andy Beshear Podcast. Today's episode is a fun one. We have former two term Democratic Governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards. He's going to tell you the answer to the question I often get asked, how did you do it? How as a Democrat do you win in a state like Louisiana? He's going to talk with pride about expanding Medicaid, bringing health care to the people and how concerned he is about that big ugly bill tearing it away. He's going to answer a lot of fun questions like the thing he misses the most about being governor and the thing he wanted to do most when it was over. Then we're going to have our conversation with the Johns covering everything from the cost of tariffs on American families to Columbia's settlement and a number of other topics. You'll hear in my Kentucky accent why I think we ought to be focusing on non partisanship while also encouraging bipartisanship. This is a great episode. I hope you like it. You're listening to the Andy Beshear Podcast. My guest this week is my good friend, former governor of Louisiana, John Bel Edwards. John Bell is a Democrat who won in a deep red state twice. Does that sound familiar? Well, he's somebody I certainly leaned on for a lot of advice over the years. Governor, welcome to the podcast.
- [01:40]
John Bel Edwards
Well, thank you very much, Governor. It's my pleasure to be on with you. And you know, Louisiana and Kentucky have so much in common. Our populations are about the same and many of the Satan challenges. And I've always admired your leadership in Kentucky and I have learned a lot from you as well.
- [01:58]
Andy Beshear
I want to start by asking you the question that everybody asks me. How do you win in a deep red state and become a two term Democratic governor?
- [02:08]
John Bel Edwards
Yeah, you know, it's a great question. The simple answer is one's a lot of people with unbelief, you got to work extremely hard. So when I ran For Governor in 2015, I was the state minority leader in the House of Representatives as leader of the Democrats. Didn't have the name recognition across the state, didn't have money, but I had a strong work ethic and a supportive family, especially my wife Donna. And we worked really hard for more than two years. I didn't want any local elected official to be able to say they hadn't met me personally and all the different groups that we trailed around and talked to. So you do start off at a disadvantage as a Democrat here. But that's in a generic ballot. But ballots are not generic. We're all human beings and so my position on the issues that mattered most to the people of Louisiana were mainstream and they accepted me. And we went on to a 12 point win over the senior US Senator at the time, David Bitter, and were able to work in a way that was bipartisan and do a lot of good things for our state, including expanding Medicaid on my very first day, which I still consider to be the best thing that I did.
- [03:31]
Andy Beshear
Expanding Medicaid, I agree, is one of the most important, impactful things that a governor can do. I'm sure it was hundreds of thousands of your residents that had access for the first time. How worried are you about the impact of this big ugly bill on how you brought health care to the people and now how this presidential administration and congressional Republicans are trying to tear it away?
- [03:59]
John Bel Edwards
Yeah, well, I am very concerned. You know, it was the easiest big decision ever made as governor, quite frankly. There's a connection to the state of Kentucky there too, because your dad's administration was going out. As I was preparing to become a governor, I wanted to expand. On my first day, I had the authority to do it by executive order, but I still had to have a plan for how to expand Medicaid and doing it without any money coming from the legislature, because they weren't going to give me any money to do it, although they couldn't stop me from doing it. You know, you cannot manage disease through the emergency room. That is the most costly way to deliver care as well. And so getting people into preventative care arrangements with their doctors and being able to get them on prescription drugs to manage their diseases is critically important. It helps you to maintain a healthy workforce. And quite frankly, expanding Medicaid helped us with the state budget issues. When I became governor, we had a $2 billion state general fund shortfall that we solved in part by expanding Medicaid. When Speaker Mike Johnson, who happens to be from Louisiana, says, well, we're just going to put work requirements on it. Well, the overwhelming majority of people covered by expansion do work, are already working. But if you make them prove to you every month or every two months that they work, there will be a paperwork error. They're not going to get the mail or you're not going to get the response back from them. You're going to kick them off of Medicaid and it's going to cause all sorts of problems for them and for your state budget because it costs more to the state when they go to the hospital uninsured than it does when they have coverage through the Medicaid. Expansion?
- [05:45]
Andy Beshear
Absolutely. And they're not just adding double the paperwork on able bodied folks, they're adding double the paperwork on everybody. So that special needs child, that senior who's getting their long term care, how devastating is it when they lose coverage because you didn't check a box?
- [06:06]
John Bel Edwards
I pray that the decision makers in Washington, whoever is in the majority after the 2026 elections, whoever, or I hope they'll do it tomorrow, but they will come to their senses and say, you know, this just isn't the right thing to do. And by the way, we promised the American people we weren't going to touch Medicaid. Truth is, you can say it's fraud, waste and abuse, but that is false. That is 100% false. And if you take a big piece of the Medicaid expansion away from a state, you put pressure on their providers and especially rural providers. And when a hospital closes, it doesn't just close for the Medicaid population, it closes for everybody. It closes the self insured for the Medicare population.
- [06:53]
Andy Beshear
Talk about how Democrats can focus on people's health, everyday issues, be there for people on their biggest concerns, but never lose standing up for their convictions.
- [07:05]
John Bel Edwards
Not all issues are going to determine whether you can live with yourself and whether you can sleep at night. And so those issues, you have to do what you believe to be right and best and you do them even if you are not doing, even if you think a majority of the people would prefer that you did something else. But I will tell you that if you make enough good decisions, if you're communicating well, if you're demonstrating good leadership, and that you are doing what you genuinely believe is best for the state, people who may disagree with you, many of them will give you the benefit of the doubt anyway. So be consistent, live up to your convictions. And speaking of convictions, one of the best days in office was a posthumous pardon of Homer Plessy, who was convicted of riding a train that a train car preserved for whites. While obviously he was a black man. And the really sad thing about that is the Supreme Court did not. You know, that's when the separate but equal doctrine came about. It was blessed by the Supreme Court and we had to live with that until 1954. But he was from right here in New Orleans. And to go back to that site and pardon him and to do it with family members of one of the justices who was from John Marshall Harlan, who wrote the most eloquent dissent in Homer vs. Plessy. And we had family members of homeoplasty and we had Family members of the justice there from Kentucky, and they were together to celebrate what we were doing. That was special. And that's another connection that I have to. You're at a wonderful state.
- [09:00]
Andy Beshear
And John Marshall Harlan was also the Attorney General of Kentucky, and he and his dad are the only other father son ags in Kentucky's history other than dad and I. So a big fan. Read a lot of his biographies. I also think about what you were able to do for Mr. Plessy, posthumously. I was able to do for a guy named Charles Young, who would have been the first black general of the US army, but for racism and discrimination. But then, you know, after we posthumously promoted him in our National Guard, President Biden made it official in the US Army. So pretty special when you're in that moment to, to try to right or do what you can to right a historic wrong.
- [09:48]
John Bel Edwards
Yeah. And you know, it would be easy enough to say, look, we're just going to let sleeping dolls go. We got other things to do. But. But those things are incredibly important. And if you have the ability, if you have the authority to right a historical wrong, I really think that you need to take advantage of that to let people know that, yeah, that's maybe what they did 100 years ago or 120 years ago, whenever it was. But today we see that issue very differently and we're going to do something about it. And I'm glad you did that. And I did not know that story, and I'm glad you shared it with me.
- [10:25]
Andy Beshear
So when you look back on your two terms as governor, what is a moment, maybe when somebody came up to you, maybe something you experienced that said, I can make a real difference in this job?
- [10:39]
John Bel Edwards
Oh, it. The. The one I'm going to explain to you, it still happens to me. But, but it was when after expanding Medicaid and it became effective. And my wife and I went back at our home town and we were in church one weekend and this lady, young lady came up to us after mass and told us that she was young, living on her own, but she had brain cancer. She was unable to get treatment before, but because of the Medicaid expansion, she had been seen and properly diagnosed. The treatments had begun. And look, it was an arduous, long road for her, but she cried, Donna. And I cried because of what that was going to mean for her and for her family. And since that day, that has happened to me many, many times. And so I, I can just tell you, and I know we've already talked about the Medicaid expansion. But that issue is the one that resonates the most with me because I still have people coming up to me every. That's why it's such a terrible thing. Exactly what they've threatened and actually put into law.
- [11:53]
Andy Beshear
You have seen the face of those that will be impacted and maybe no longer with us.
- [12:01]
John Bel Edwards
100%. You know, I was raised by a mother who was a charity hospital nurse. And when I was a kid, the state still owned a lot of charity hospitals, and it was where the uninsured went. And every day she went to work in an emergency room and she took care of the poorest people in our community, people who didn't have insurance. But she did it out of the emergency room. And she would come home and tell us that that is so inefficient. And to be in the United States of Americ and dispense health care that way, even though she was doing the best she could, she knew that it wasn't right. And, you know, my mother and father are gone now, but they actually had a picture of Barack Obama. Obama. Signing the Affordable Care act in their living room. And so those are the people who raised me. And, you know, she did live until just a couple years ago. So the person in the state of Louisiana who was most proud of what we did on Medicaid happened to be my mother.
- [13:04]
Andy Beshear
John Bell, one area where you excelled as governor that I know you wish you didn't have to excel as governor is dealing with natural disasters. You all got hit and hit hard. Tell us both what makes a good governor in terms of responding to disasters and also your concerns on these threats to FEMA that I know we both agree could improve, but we absolutely cannot eliminate. Yeah.
- [13:36]
John Bel Edwards
First of all, the experience we have in Louisiana to prepare for and respond to and recover from natural disasters on a per capita basis. If you go back the last 20 or 30 years, there's no state in the nation that's had more damage than the state of Louisiana from natural disaster. So the. The frequency is increasing, the intensity is increasing. We had, in my time as Governor, in my eight years, I think the count was 23. Federal disaster deck.
- [14:12]
Andy Beshear
Wow. We're at 14 right now.
- [14:14]
John Bel Edwards
Yeah. I mean, and that's how many we had. But having a good team around you here we have the governor's offices, Office of Homeland Security, Emergency Preparedness. But having good people in those positions in your National Guard, your state police, your wildlife and fisheries, so that when you call on them, you know they're going to be able to Lead having good partners at FEMA around in the White House. And by the way, the disasters don't know colors. They're not red or blue. And they don't just affect red and blue voters. Right. So trying to have good relationships with the federal government, with female and so forth, incredibly important. You know, I don't claim to be God's gift to anything. I do think that the time that I spent in the army helped prepare me for all those disasters. Because you're just trained to lead and make decisions and you got to make the decisions in a timely manner. It's difficult, but a good decision, timely made always beats the perfect decision that comes too late. But trying to figure out when you have enough information to make that decision can be difficult. And then leading from the front and by example, those things are so important. And that played out especially during COVID which I know you led Kentucky through. There is no playbook. I bet you the center drawer of your desk there in Kentucky didn't have a manual. Know what to do in a pandemic like that. But very difficult. You've got to trust the people who are the experts, acknowledge that you aren't the expert. And then you got to try to communicate with people and be honest with them, tell them what you know and what you don't know. And if it's a novel virus, then you are going to learn and things are going to change. And when they change, you just tell them. And the overwhelming majority of people will appreciate that. But the people on social media aren't necessarily in the majority, but they are the loudest.
- [16:12]
Andy Beshear
And they do seem to think they're epidemiologists.
- [16:15]
John Bel Edwards
Oh, they're experts, 100%. They're like all the college football coaches that we have on Monday morning, right?
- [16:23]
Andy Beshear
That's right.
- [16:24]
John Bel Edwards
That's exactly what happens.
- [16:25]
Andy Beshear
Tell us your opinion on these threatened cuts to FEMA. 600 plus million dollars of the building resilient money. Now another billion dollars that's threatened for a lot of different programs and even comments about trying to shut down FEMA that I hope the administrat administration has walked back.
- [16:46]
John Bel Edwards
Yeah, it seems like they're taking a different approach to that and I really hope so. Look, there is not an agency at the state level or federal level that can't be improved. And we should always want to be more efficient where we can be more responsive. We should want to improve. But I can tell you there are certain things where you have government and you have a federal government, the common defense is one. But disaster preparedness and response. If we don't have a strong partner in the federal government, then every state is going to have to have every resource internally that it might need for the next disaster. That is the definition of inefficient. We need to be able to get urban search and rescue teams from parts of the country that weren't affected by the hurricane that you just had. You know, you need a federal agency like FEMA to task the Corps of Engineers. Because I can't call the chief Engineer in Washington, D.C. as Governor of Louisiana and tell them I have a dewatering mission or I have a power generation mission, or I need them to stand up for me. An emergency hospital in a convention center. You know, it takes the federal government to do that. And so there is absolutely a role to play. And, you know, when we had the. It was so terrible. And you've seen it in Kentucky with the flooding. And we don't have elevation changes here in Louisiana. We're at. But what we saw most recently in Texas. I'm hopeful that it got the administration's attention and they understand that there is a role for fema. And, you know, we always help one another as states through emac requests, where, you know, I might get some Chinooks flown in from the Mississippi National Guard because I didn't have Chinooks in Louisiana. Or we needed additional state troopers after Hurricane Ida and you all were nice enough to send some down to Louisiana. I was able to send some trailers. You are trailers after your flooding. Because we had made those available to our citizens. They had transitioned out of them, and we had them available and we were able to get them up to you.
- [19:10]
Andy Beshear
It was enormously helpful. We were able to just haul and install.
- [19:15]
John Bel Edwards
Yeah. If you remember, we just sent the trailers and we figured, okay, we'll make the paperwork happen later. We need to get relief to people. But it takes all of us working together and having a good federal partner. Just think, Andy, if every state was on its own for a disaster, that would be a disaster.
- [19:37]
Andy Beshear
It would be.
- [19:38]
John Bel Edwards
It would just be one disaster on top of the other. So I'm hopeful the president and his administration are moving away from that. There are some things that they can do to improve, to modernize, and maybe the per capita amount that has to be at issue in a disastrous. Should be increased periodically in order to get the declaration issued or something like that. But disbanding FEMA is not a good idea.
- [20:05]
Andy Beshear
Now, your wife, Donna is one of my favorite first ladies, maybe my third, because I think I have to Put my wife and my mother, you better do that. In that she has an organization that fights human trafficking that our first lady, my wife Brittany joined. Tell our listeners a little bit about it.
- [20:26]
John Bel Edwards
Yeah. So Donna became aware really human trafficking wasn't on our radars before I became governor, but we became aware of the extent of the problem not just in Louisiana, but across the country and across the globe. It's something that she actually got involved in. In Baton Rouge, we created a home called Metanoia Manor, and it is for female teenage victims of human sex trafficking. But quite often they didn't have a place to go so that they could be rescued and they could be healed in terms of all of the problems visited them, whether it's health problems or mental issues or their physical whatever it was. And she started working on that. And then she started working with first spouses around the country in order to bring awareness and to make this a priority outside of Louisiana, in more states. And she worked with Brittany to do that and many others. And as you well know, this is one of those areas where we had complete bipartisan buy in. And Governor Hutchinson and his wife Susan out of Arkansas, tremendously response to that. And Bill Lee and Tennessee, for example, and his wife, and right here in Mississippi, so right next door in Mississippi, I should say.
- [21:53]
Andy Beshear
So.
- [21:54]
John Bel Edwards
Donna, by the way, she is clearly my favorite first lady.
- [21:58]
Andy Beshear
That's a good answer.
- [22:01]
John Bel Edwards
And she continues to be involved and it's one of the things she works with the Catholic Church on too. And she has been to Rome. She and I visited with Pope Francis about human trafficking. Uh, so. And by the way, people should not think human trafficking only happens in other places. Uh, there are forms of it in communities everywhere, all over the world. And it is so sad. And we have to do more to get rid of it.
- [22:28]
Andy Beshear
What, what was the thing that you were looking forward to doing most after your term ended?
- [22:35]
John Bel Edwards
Uh, traveling with Donna. Because, you know, you can travel while you're governor, but there are always business trips and if they're a personal vacation, always very short. We actually went to Italy last year and spent three weeks, and it was just the best vacation that I've had.
- [22:54]
Andy Beshear
I think I just want to drive in a car alone. Just. That's fun too. That's fun too.
- [23:00]
John Bel Edwards
And you listen to the music you want to listen to. And when I come down to New Orleans, one thing that I miss is I never had to look for a parking spot in Scoundrel. Well, once you get out of office, you gotta go fend for yourself.
- [23:12]
Andy Beshear
That was my next question what you miss the most?
- [23:15]
John Bel Edwards
Yeah, I miss. I miss seeing people, the people that worked in the governor's office. You get on that schedule where you see people, you develop friendships and so forth. And so I just miss seeing and interacting with people the most.
- [23:29]
Andy Beshear
Well, John Bell, we appreciate your leadership. I appreciate your friendship. And you get points for having not one, but two horses in your shot. To those that watch us on the YouTube channel, thanks for joining the podcast.
- [23:44]
John Bel Edwards
Thank you so much, Governor. I appreciate you.
- [23:52]
Andy Beshear
You're listening to the Andy Beshear Podcast. We talk about this podcast as a conversation among friends. And so our next segment is our conversation among friends. It's my conversation with the Johns, John Rabinowitz and John McConnell. I think today we'll start with a topic we talk about, I think just about every single episode, and that's tariffs. A couple of things have happened since last week because it seems three or four things happen every week around tariffs. First, a couple new deals were announced with the EU and some other countries. But second, we got a study from Yale out that gave one of the first approximations into how hard this is going to hit American families. And gentlemen, it's rough. They are estimating that each American family will see their costs raised on them by about $2,700. For most Americans, that's just too much to bear.
- [24:52]
John Rabinowitz
That's a lot of money to have to absorb in a budget.
- [24:55]
Andy Beshear
One thing I think has happened here is that this administration has successfully gamified the way that it's discussed how many deals in 100 days or more, what are the percentages going to be when the number I'm most concerned about is what's the hit on the average American family? Because if it is, if this tax break gives an average American family less than $2,700, then this bill has made it harder for them to live. And for almost all working Americans outside of one tax bracket, they're getting a lot less in that tax break than the cost.
- [25:31]
John McConnell
You know, that's interesting that you say that, because I think I heard today that it looks like they're in discussions with China again. I guess that's a constant, but they will likely extend it another 90 days. So to your point, maybe it is a little gamesmanship on what can we get done in these windows. We have Japan, we have the euro. I guess one of my questions, though, John, you and I were talking about it earlier, is in addition to the tariffs, these investments in, I'm just going to say investments in America that Japan and the EU are putting in. I'm interested to see how that's going to play out in terms of job creation and what kind of money it's also going to bring to the economy.
- [26:10]
John Rabinowitz
Well, and you look at The Japan conversation, 550 billion, that's 14% of their gross national product. So it's a huge part. And then who's going to control that? Where are they going to go invest that at?
- [26:25]
Andy Beshear
When you think about and evaluate that, you also have to think about what would be happening without the trade war. Now, what I saw was a huge desire by Japan, South Korea and Europe to invest in the United States, invest significantly. They thought they had overextended in China. And this was in January when I was at the World Economic Forum. Everyone I met with wanted to do a deal. They wanted to do it right now. And then the President came on zoom at the World Economic Forum and told everyone he was going to tariff the heck out of them. That's pretty much how the conversation went. And the brakes just hit. You know, tariffs make the uncertainty in building a new manufacturing facility difficult. We've talked about how Churchill Downs canceled an expansion. It also just. It generates bad will among some of these countries and whether their companies want to invest. For us, being a state in the state of Kentucky where we have more foreign direct investment than most, I have significant worries about the overall impact of all of this on how much new investment we see.
- [27:34]
John McConnell
And I think I saw that. Sorry, John. I think I saw that. He said Trump said that there was. If they didn't reach a deal, he expected nothing below 15%, but most of the tariffs to be between 15 and 20%. But he's still throwing that 50% number out to some countries. So it really will be interesting to see where all this ends up.
- [27:54]
John Rabinowitz
Well, and another piece I'll toss into it as well is going to be the 1.1 billion GM has announced that they absorbed in tariffs directly out of their profits.
- [28:03]
Andy Beshear
So you talk about it's one third of their profit for that quarter. They lost. I mean, a 33% reduction in a publicly traded company. Yeah.
- [28:13]
John Rabinowitz
And if you've got that and you're trying to save for retirement, you've invested, all of a sudden you've seen something you're counting on trying to grow, not growing as much.
- [28:22]
John McConnell
It's the whole industry, isn't it?
- [28:23]
Andy Beshear
It's all about Stellantis too, suffered a significant reduction of profit. I think Volkswagen just lost billions of dollars. And you may think, well, Volkswagen is a German company. But they have huge U.S. operations. And so what that means in the auto industry right now is a big challenge.
- [28:42]
John McConnell
Guys, turn to the next subject. Columbia University settlement was announced last week and Columbia University and the Trump administration reached a deal that restored the federal funding and research grant money to the university. But in exchange for that, Colombia will pay 200 million to the federal government over three years. An additional 21 million to resolve alleged civil rights violations against Jewish employees. And it also agreed to suspend, expel or revoke degrees from 70 students that were at Palestinian protests. So this is obviously an enormous shift in how the federal government handles higher ed. So my question to you guys is, is there such a thing now in this world as academic independence?
- [29:31]
Andy Beshear
It depends if this sets a precedent. I mean, our future presidents going to directly engage with universities, even threaten their accreditation, which is something that, as some have fought back, this administration has done. If you lose accreditation, which is a really long process, we saw it at least threatened at University of Louisville based on actions of the last governor. But that's the lifeblood. If a university loses accreditation, it's done. This administration has brought huge amounts of pressure to even incredibly well funded institutions. It shows how strong the pressure of the federal government can be if it's brought to bear.
- [30:15]
John Rabinowitz
John and I, we both have incoming freshmen to college. So when I hear about a university having to write $200 million, a 21 million dollar fine, you know, it kind of makes me wonder, but that has to be passed on or it had to have been collected in order to be paid. And is that going to something we have to worry about as far as tuition?
- [30:35]
John McConnell
You know, I am all sorry.
- [30:36]
Andy Beshear
Everyone should be able to feel safe at their university. And I think raising that issue about how to ensure that in the future is legitimate and is a conversation that could be had across a number of universities. Though Columbia was certainly in the news day in and day out. But are we better off? Because a university doing a lot of research in medicine and other places is now $220 million lighter than it was before.
- [31:07]
John McConnell
I'm all about getting into these universities based on merit. I think we all are. But to not agree with an administration and have to pay a ransom more or less, or like a fine if you don't, seems somewhat outrageous.
- [31:26]
Andy Beshear
It's concerning about what the future will be. Can a president who disagrees with a southern university and some of the policies it may have. What if you have a president that disagrees with a religious university? Universities used to be generally off limits. Sure. They needed to provide Safety. And again, that's a discussion that you can have. But for a president to be directly engaged in a fight with the university, this is the first time I can.
- [31:58]
John McConnell
Remember, and I think I asked you, I guess the fines go to. Back to the Department of Justice and what happens thereafter.
- [32:07]
Andy Beshear
Or bitcoin.
- [32:07]
John McConnell
Or bitcoin. Great point.
- [32:10]
John Rabinowitz
Well, transitioning on the continuing conversation of the understanding of the big not so beautiful bill and how we see that.
- [32:18]
Andy Beshear
Impacting us, it's going to be rough. We've already seen the president of the University of Louisville and their interim CEO of UofL Health come out and say they're going to have to lay off a bunch of people. They're going to have to end different lines of service. We already have hospitals trying to find new ways. You know, the numbers are at least 200,000 Kentuckians lose their health care coverage, 20,000 plus Kentuckians lose their health care jobs, and 35 rural hospitals are going to really struggle, but so will the urban ones. Now, there are people that think it's going to take until 2028 for this stuff to kick in, that they've pushed it too far for the midterms. But, oh, no. I mean, any business isn't going to go right up to the cliff.
- [33:08]
John McConnell
No, we planned a year in advance. That actually was going to be my question. I thought that it was strategically placed so that it wouldn't really have the effect till later on, but that makes sense.
- [33:17]
Andy Beshear
Oh, it was strategically placed because they thought people wouldn't feel it until later on, but they don't understand business. And so these are folks that are supposed to be the party of business. I don't agree with that. I think you've got folks on the Democratic side and Republican side that do understand business and those that don't. But the idea that they could say, well, the cuts just happened in 2028, so no one will make any moves or 2027 is just unrealistic. So imagine if you've got a unprofitable line of service in healthcare, or if you got one where the margins are really small and you were about to expand it because you were healthy when there was an extra trillion dollars in the system. You're going to suddenly pull back on that. You're going to maybe not announce that next service and. Or you're going to get out early and say, we are going to discontinue delivery services. We're going to discontinue pediatric service. We're going to discontinue a specialty service. In an area where it is not as profitable as others.
- [34:23]
John McConnell
And speaking of cuts, I think that earlier you showed me an article where there's a proposal for additional what, FEMA cuts.
- [34:32]
Andy Beshear
So the original FEMA cuts that we saw were to programs that help us build resiliently. And first of all, those are really important programs because we're having more natural disasters than ever before. 14 federally declared natural disasters in Kentucky since I came into office and one that should have been declared but has been denied thus far. So think about that. That's 15 in five and a half years. And that means we're going to see it even with any other change we might make right now in the United States. We're going to see it for the next 10 years. And so we've got to have these programs that helped our communities get ready, get ready to respond, but also to be able to build our infrastructure in a way that can withstand something they didn't previously have to. This new proposed cut is a billion dollars, and it's all through the Department of Homeland Security. Some of it are for funding to help prevent terrorist attacks. I'd like to say that that funding ought to continue for all of us in our safety. But other pieces are directly within female, including an upgrade to the National Awareness Service, a service that we use to try to let people know when a natural disaster is coming towards them. So combine that with cuts to the National Weather Service. With everything we faced in Kentucky, we know it's critical these dollars continue to flow.
- [35:59]
John McConnell
That's exactly right. When I read that article, I think I said to you this is a nightmare. It's not a matter of if it's when we're going to have another disaster. And some people don't, like, will need the alarm system, will need the heads up to get out of their homes, get out of their towns to be safe.
- [36:15]
Andy Beshear
In this week's My Kentucky Accent, I talk about a push towards nonpartisanship. A natural disaster doesn't care if you're a Democrat or Republican. It will just devastate your family and your life and the region that it hits. Is there a more important government service than being there for our people at their darkest and worst moment, when they have been hit so hard, they look at what used to be their house and say, where do we start? We ought to be standing there with them.
- [36:46]
John McConnell
No doubt.
- [36:52]
Andy Beshear
The next segment on the Andy Beshear podcast is called In My Kentucky Accent. It's about what's on my heart and mind this week. Right now, when people are talking about the problems with our government. What I often hear is that there needs to be more bipartisanship and first. Amen. People need to be able to get along better. But what I think we need first is a lot more nonpartisanship. It's the idea that a good job isn't red or blue, that a new bridge isn't Democrat or Republican. So if we can take the politics out of the core concerns of Americans, think about how much we can accomplish. If we would start off working together on creating good jobs, on expanding health care and making it more affordable, on building safer roads and bridges, on improving our public schools, and on making people feel safer in their communities, Think about how much we could do for the American people. We wouldn't be moving a country to the right or the left. We'd just be moving it forward for everyone. So if we could spend 80% of our time on those core issues before any of the politics starts, and if our first question on any suggestion or policy in those areas was, will it work as opposed to will it be a win or a loss for this party or the other, then we could get real progress for the American people. So I am all for bipartisanship, but if we could get a little non partisanship on core areas, we get a lot done. This is the Andy Beshear Podcast. If you're watching us on YouTube, we've switched it up a little bit. Brittany and I are sitting on the tiny couch because this segment is Ask Andy and Brittany. Today we have Breland, our director and producer, who is going to interrogate the both of us.
- [38:51]
John Bel Edwards
So the first question, how do you do date night?
- [38:58]
Andy Beshear
It sounds like Brittany's answer is not. Well, we try to carve out date night. What we found right now is there's almost always a baseball game or a horse show, but oftentimes dinner at a restaurant that we want to try or that we really enjoy.
- [39:16]
John Bel Edwards
Yeah.
- [39:16]
Brittany Beshear
And really, even for us, if we have a couple of hours at home, we'll play. We love to play gin. And we have a game called Tri Omino's that we love to play. So it's not necessarily, I think, for us, planning this big night out, it's just finding those moments that we have together and using them, you know, utilizing the time we have where it's just.
- [39:40]
Andy Beshear
Us and we can be present.
- [39:41]
John Bel Edwards
Mm, I like that. I like that. So how do you keep your marriage front and center with all the demands in parenting, sports, and serving Kentucky the best we can?
- [39:53]
Andy Beshear
Yeah, I think that's a challenge on Every couple. But you've got to put in the time and the effort. Mainly. You've got to be there for each other, too. I mean, it can be challenging and stressful times, and you never know when something might get to me or. Or to her.
- [40:11]
Brittany Beshear
Yeah. And I think sometimes, I think it's. It's honest to say that we fall short. I think everybody falls short sometimes, but I think it's. It's that kind of regrouping and sitting down and. And recognizing that we, you know, we haven't been able to spend as much time talking or, you know, Andy tries to talk to me when I'm falling asleep, which is the wrong time to try to talk to me, but that.
- [40:33]
Andy Beshear
When I have my best ideas in.
- [40:34]
Brittany Beshear
The middle of the night. Yeah. Yeah. There's. I'll sit up and say things, and I think, what in the world is going on in your brain?
- [40:41]
Andy Beshear
I'm working for. For. For the Commonwealth. Even when I'm sleeping.
- [40:45]
John Bel Edwards
That's what's up. All right. And what do you look forward to as a couple?
- [40:51]
Brittany Beshear
Actually, I think right now we are full in sports and. And starting to think about college. And so I think seeing our kids succeed or be excited about something that they've. They've learned or done, that's kind of as. I think, as parents, that's a huge success.
- [41:08]
Andy Beshear
Being able to go to their events together and to experience it together, you know, knowing that we've only got one at home full time for another two years and the other for three. We're trying to maximize our time as a family unit as much as we can.
- [41:25]
John Bel Edwards
What's a good book you've been enjoying lately?
- [41:28]
Andy Beshear
Well, I'm a big Silas House fan. He reminded me what great literature is about. And then I read David Baldacci. He's a. Same law school that I went to, and it can be enjoyable.
- [41:43]
Brittany Beshear
I'm reading an incredible book right now that is called the Nine, and it is about nine women who were imprisoned in Ravensbrook during World War II. A few of them have Jewish heritage, but a lot of them were in the French resistance. And so it goes through. Through firsthand accounts, through piecing together several of those narratives and trying to find the truth of what these nine women experience together. Is absolutely incredible book. And a different part of the Holocaust that we don't hear a lot about.
- [42:20]
John Bel Edwards
We've heard there's some secret superpower you might have had.
- [42:23]
Andy Beshear
Can you tell us a little bit.
- [42:24]
John Bel Edwards
About what that could be?
- [42:25]
Brittany Beshear
Well, I do have a very special superpower, and that is packing a suitcase.
- [42:31]
Andy Beshear
Packing a suitcase. It's incredible what she can do in a suitcase.
- [42:36]
Brittany Beshear
Well, and it's not so much I fold the clothes perfectly and stuff. T shirts and shoes. It's more that all of the things you never knew you needed. She's got wind up and it's kind of like a Mary Poppins bag. And I don't know, like you kind.
- [42:49]
Andy Beshear
Of have the beach and some strange thing happens and it snows and she's got a parka in the back in snow boots. Oh, every form of shoe. I don't get how they fit in there, but she somehow made it happen. Now, we did go through a period where when it was just us, I never had to touch a suitcase because she was so good at it. And I would leave things. And then we had kids.
- [43:13]
Brittany Beshear
Yeah, that didn't work. There was a few. There were a few years. There were the dark days when there.
- [43:17]
Andy Beshear
Were a few years where I might have had socks and a baseball cap. And so you know what I did? What everybody else did does I packed my own suitcase and continue to do so.
- [43:27]
John Bel Edwards
What else? Something surprising that people might not know about you?
- [43:32]
Brittany Beshear
Well, let's see. I was a very good gymnast back in my days. Now I can't even do a cartwheel. It makes me dizzy. But I did win the Southern California State Gymnastics Championships. Twice.
- [43:45]
Andy Beshear
Twice.
- [43:46]
Brittany Beshear
Twice. And yeah.
- [43:48]
Andy Beshear
So if you want to know where kids get their athletic ability, it's their mom. But they've all gotten A's in math, and that's me.
- [43:57]
Brittany Beshear
That's a hundred percent.
- [43:58]
John Bel Edwards
Andy, what took the most adjusting to you for you when you moved to Kentucky?
- [44:02]
Brittany Beshear
There's a story I like to tell, and it's. It's my elevator story. And I went into an elevator and I had lived in Kentucky maybe a week, and the person in the elevator with me started talking to me. And I thought, why are you talking to me? We're just in an elevator. This is not like we're not friends. We're just. 20 seconds you can go about your life. But then I realized that in Kentucky, people are genuinely nice. And it's not a fake. Just saying hello, it's how's your day? Or whatever the comment is. And so I'm now the person who talks to everybody in the elevator.
- [44:36]
Andy Beshear
I will say it is a cultural difference. I lived a summer in New York, and when you're on the subway, you're so close to people. I felt uncomfortable not talking to them and they felt uncomfortable with me talking to them. And So I guess we were all ultimately uncomfortable once you hear this. It's true. If you get in an elevator and you're in Kentucky and you don't say something to the other people.
- [44:57]
Brittany Beshear
Rude.
- [44:58]
Andy Beshear
You were just rude.
- [45:00]
John Bel Edwards
What do you love most about the Commonwealth?
- [45:02]
Brittany Beshear
Oh, gosh. There's so many things I love about Kentucky. The people like we were just talking about are just so genuinely warm and kind. And I think the feeling in Kentucky, I think it's really the priorities of raising a family in your community are just. They're so great. And, you know, we. We live in a different type of neighborhood now, but our very first neighborhood in Louisville was this kind of small. It just had a few streets, and kids were out riding their bikes, doing things that kids do. And I remember being so surprised because it just felt very unsafe to me. But it was perfectly safe because everybody's looking out for everybody else's family, and everyone is looking out their windows and seeing who's riding past their house on their bike. And so I think that people have a huge. Just. It's a huge place in my heart, but also it's beautiful. There is nothing like the rolling hills of Kentucky. And it just. Every time I cross the state line, it just makes me so happy to be home.
- [46:08]
Andy Beshear
I think there's another one you. Well, thank you. I mean, yes. I. I hope one thing you love about Kentucky is me, and it's very stereo stereotypical, and I didn't know that it would happen, but I think you love horses.
- [46:23]
Brittany Beshear
I do. I do. And our daughter, obviously, riding horses. I've been around horses now a lot, and I love how personalities come out in horses. They really have huge personalities. Lila's horse's name is Seamus, and he is a goofy personality. And just seeing him and seeing the bond he has with Lila has been really special. So I. There's a lot of beauty in horses. Not only seeing them out in the fields, but in being up close with them.
- [46:53]
Andy Beshear
As she knows, my first job was mucking horse stalls. It prepares you for politics. We've come to the end of another episode of the Andy Beshear podcast. We enjoyed this one, and we hope you did, too. We want to make sure that we're having this conversation among friends, but we're also helping you process all the news that hits you each and every day, and that after listening, you feel a little bit lighter, a little more hopeful, and a little more prepared to face the week ahead. Everybody take care of. Be safe. See you next week. Remember, you can download us on all major platforms or subscribe to our YouTube channel @andy Beshear Podcast. Your downloads and your subscriptions are what keep us going and keeps this conversation going. So make sure you're a part of it, and let's do this together.