Senator Alex Padilla: How Democrats Can Win in 2026

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Senator Alex Padilla: How Democrats Can Win in 2026

Podcast: Hasan Minhaj Doesn’t Know
Host: Hasan Minhaj (with Aziz Ansari as guest interlocutor)
Guest: Senator Alex Padilla (California)
Date: December 10, 2025

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Overview

In this vibrant, candid episode of Hasan Minhaj Doesn’t Know, comedians Hasan Minhaj and Aziz Ansari interview Senator Alex Padilla of California. The discussion is wide-ranging and unsparing, focusing on the Democrats’ strategy (and missteps) in the face of a government shutdown, evolving immigration policy, party leadership rumblings, and the high-stakes political climate headed into 2026. The tone is irreverent, honest, deeply personal at times, and peppered with dark humor—even on weighty issues like mass deportations, ICE raids, and party infighting.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Democratic Strategy & the Recent Government Shutdown

Timestamps: 07:23–15:40

• The “WTF Happened?” Recap: Aziz bluntly asks why Democrats caved after the shutdown, failing to secure healthcare subsidies despite an electoral sweep.
  • Senator Padilla clarifies that Republicans held the majority and chose to "decimate health care," forcing the shutdown. Some Democrats broke ranks to end it without further concessions ([08:15]).
  • “The big bullshit bill is what I call it. Right? Gutting healthcare spending way back then. All for what? To give billionaires bigger tax breaks.” —Padilla ([10:28]).
• Promise of a “Future Vote”:
  • Padilla expresses skepticism: "A dollar a vote later to reopen the government now. Why? This crew of people have proven themselves to be untrustworthy time and time and time again." ([11:23]).
• The Eight Senate “Fold”:
  • Padilla admits disappointment and calls for intra-party reckoning, but insists the true adversary is still Trump and the GOP ([14:39]).

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2. Calls for Party Leadership Change

Timestamps: 15:40–19:08

• Aziz broaches the idea of a leadership challenge to Senator Chuck Schumer.
  • The “Katniss Everdeen moment” for Padilla is jokingly suggested.
  • “I can tell you there’s a number, number of members that are getting their weapons ready. But it’s not to turn them on ourselves. It’s to turn them on the folks that are standing in our way for making progress for working people…” —Padilla ([18:10]).
• On Moral Clarity:
  • Aziz and Hasan argue that the country is hungry for “moral clarity,” noting that the Mamdani moment in NYC (a reference to politician Zohran Mamdani) showed voters respond to authenticity over talking points.

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3. Proposition 50 & Countering GOP Power Plays

Timestamps: 19:08–22:14

• Prop 50 explained: Special election in California to redraw congressional lines in response to Trump’s power grabs in Texas. Padilla likens this to previous efforts by Trump to "find" votes and describes it as essential guardrails against anti-democratic maneuvers.
  • “They know that their record, their agenda, is so not just unpopular, but damaging… unless they rig it before it starts.” —Padilla ([19:17])
• Democrats' Historical Caution:
  • “We cannot unilaterally disarm ourselves…times we’re living in are so extreme, so dangerous, that we have no choice but to fight fire with fire.” —Padilla ([21:58])

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4. Immigration, Party Cowardice, and “Changing the Weather”

Timestamps: 22:14–33:04

• Change the Weather vs. Weatherman:
  • Padilla credits colleagues like Bernie Sanders for changing the discourse, not just following it.
• Padilla’s Personal Investment:
  • He recounts growing up as the child of immigrants, bringing context—and urgency—to his belief in a humane path to citizenship ([24:30]).
• Intra-Party Frustration:
  • Padilla admits that many fellow Democrats shrink from the immigration debate, shifting quickly to “secure the border”—and often echoing Republican rhetoric ([26:37], [32:20]).
  • “When it comes to voting rights, when it comes to labor rights… that’s all firm. But when it comes to immigration—‘oh, well, I don’t know, in my state, the polls say this..’ like, that’s bullshit. That’s bullshit.” —Padilla ([32:52])

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5. ICE Raids & Mass Deportation: Impact and Resistance

Timestamps: 33:04–41:47

• Padilla’s Confrontation and Arrest:
  • Padilla describes being handcuffed for questioning DHS Secretary Christine Ulm—underscoring the climate of intimidation ([33:24], [34:14]).
• Escalating ICE & National Guard Action:
  • “This is the playbook, folks…try to quell dissent.” ([34:14])
  • Examples abound of ICE targeting churches, schools, and citizens—“No less than 170 US citizens detained, including veterans.” ([35:23])
• Grassroots Response:
  • Chicago and LA communities organize “whistle defense” networks and rapid response (like rings of people around schools) as acts of nonviolent resistance ([47:50]).

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6. Voter Apathy and “Pulling the Ladder Up”

Timestamps: 41:47–47:21

• Immigrant Voting Dilemmas:
  • Aziz and Padilla discuss why some second-generation immigrants voted for Trump or disengaged, citing economic anxiety and scarcity mentality.
  • Padilla says: “We can’t be so pissed off at the cousin that voted for Trump that you’re never going to talk to them again, because that’s never going to bring them back.” ([42:33])
• Scarcity, Empathy & Community:
  • Immigration gets tied to broader feelings of scarcity—Padilla invokes his upbringing:
    “In Spanish, my mom used to say, ‘le echamos mas agua a los frijoles,’ just add more water to the pot of beans…That’s in most people’s heart.” ([47:15])

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7. Communication, Listening, and Political Empowerment

Timestamps: 50:07–52:17

• Padilla describes his method: First, genuinely listen to constituents, then share his fight, and finally, invite people to join in—whether it’s donating, showing up, or voting.
  • “If they feel like they’re being heard, they’re going to be more receptive to what you may share…” ([51:01])

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8. The Spectacle of Public Safety & the Cruelty of Policy

Timestamps: 52:17–54:49

• Public Reactions to ICE/National Guard:
  • Some Americans feel safer; others are horrified by the spectacle and cruelty.
  • “Crime in most major cities in America is significantly down… but everybody, or most people… are seeing the cruelty of this administration.” —Padilla ([53:10])
• Cruelty as Policy:
  • Cuts to healthcare, SNAP, and an emphasis on billionaire tax breaks are called out as acts of cruelty ([54:19]).

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9. National Guard Deployments & “Spectacle over Safety”

Timestamps: 58:07–60:25

• Padilla recalls the chilling effect of seeing National Guard patrol streets—something their parents “fled” from—as political intimidation, not public safety ([58:26]).
  • “If you talk to (the Marines), they’ll tell you, this is not what they signed up for.” ([59:07])

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10. California As America’s Future?

Timestamps: 60:25–67:10

• California’s Innovations & Diversity:
  • Padilla and hosts play up California’s economic dynamism and diversity, calling it a microcosm of America’s potential ([61:08]).
  • The paradox of multicultural innovation vs. narratives by opponents (esp. online):
    “Many of those companies, if not the actual technology itself, brought to you by an immigrant or a child.” ([64:33])
• Confronting Homelessness:
  • Padilla details housing affordability crises, homelessness fixes (wraparound services, supply, rental assistance), and ongoing attacks on these programs by GOP ([65:35]).

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11. Closing on Venezuela

Timestamps: 67:10–68:32

• Are We Going to War with Venezuela?
  • Padilla: “Not as far as I can tell by the book. But in practice, it certainly has approached that fine line.”
  • Worry over Iraq-style pretense for oil intervention: “Let’s hopefully have learned from it by now.” ([68:00])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "The big bullshit bill is what I call it. Right? Gutting health care spending way back then. All for what? To give billionaires bigger tax breaks."
  —Sen. Alex Padilla ([10:28])

• "We cannot unilaterally disarm ourselves. … Times we’re living in are so extreme, so dangerous, so perilous that we have no choice but to fight fire with fire."
  —Padilla ([21:58])

• "When it comes to immigration. Oh, well, I don't know. But see, in my state, you know, the polls say this. Like— that's bullshit. That's bullshit."
  —Padilla ([32:52])

• "We can't be so pissed off at the cousin that voted for Trump that you’re never going to talk to them again because that's never going to bring them back. So we have to have that conversation."
  —Padilla ([42:33])

• "In Spanish, my mom used to say, le echamos mas agua a los frijoles. Just add more water to the pot of beans… That's in most people's hearts. We just have to pull it out of each other."
  —Padilla ([47:15])

• “If that’s what this administration will do to a senator with a question, then you can just imagine how they are treating…so many people across the country when the cameras aren’t there.”
  —Padilla ([33:40])

• "It's not to turn [our weapons] on ourselves. It's to turn them on the folks that are standing in our way for making progress for working people..."
  —Padilla on intra-party fight ([18:10])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------------|-----------------------------------------------------| | 07:23–15:40 | Government Shutdown, Democratic Strategy | | 15:40–19:08 | Schumer Leadership Challenge, “Katniss” Moment | | 19:08–22:14 | Proposition 50, Countering Republican Gerrymandering| | 22:14–33:04 | Immigration, Weather-changing Politicians | | 33:04–41:47 | ICE Raids, Mass Deportation, Community Response | | 41:47–47:21 | Immigrant Voting, Pulling Up the Ladder, Empathy | | 52:17–54:49 | Spectacle of Public Safety, Cruelty | | 58:07–60:25 | National Guard Deployments, Spectacle Not Safety | | 60:25–67:10 | California as a Model, Homelessness, Policy | | 67:10–68:32 | Venezuela, War Rhetoric |

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Episode Tone & Final Thoughts

With biting humor and a striking lack of talking points, this episode pulls back the curtain on Democratic frustrations, the emotional toll of the immigration fight, and the high-stakes gamesmanship ahead of 2026. Padilla shines not just as a party loyalist or policy wonk, but as an advocate for changing the moral and practical “weather” of the country. The conversation is a must-listen for anyone seeking insights (and catharsis) about current American political dynamics, immigrant realities, and the prospects—and challenges—facing Democrats nationwide.

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Transcript

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[Aziz]

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[Aziz]

I love the idea of hosting my family and friends but what the heck.

[Hassan]

Am I supposed to feed these people?

[Aziz]

Thanks.

[Hassan]

Thankfully Whole Foods Market entered the chat. They are heat in each sides from the prepared foods department have single handedly kept my family together in synthetic coloring. Free.

[Aziz]

Yay. You know what's better than hosting? Celebrating in other people's homes.

[Hassan]

Because for those gatherings I am not responsible for the full spread. I just gotta show up with a.

[Aziz]

Host gift and that is easy money.

[Hassan]

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[Aziz]

Curated cheeses and grab some crackers to go with them. Guaranteed hit. But if you really want to impress.

[Hassan]

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[Aziz]

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[Hassan]

Over 240 ingredients that don't meet their standards.

[Aziz]

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[Hassan]

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[Aziz]

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[Senator Alex Padilla]

Lemonade.

[Aziz]

Would you support a leadership challenge to Chuck Schumer, Senator Padilla? If you did that, you would walk through that Senate cafeteria. And people would whisper, thank you. They would do the three finger salute to you.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

The.

[Aziz]

I mean, come on, Senator.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Even his.

[Hassan]

Even his glasses are trying to leave. California Senior Senator Alex Padilla is the fifth. Fifth sitting US Senator to come on.

[Aziz]

Hmdk and the third to say the F word. It makes sense.

[Hassan]

The shutdown ended without extensions for healthcare subsidies. Immigration raids are terrorizing communities across the state. And he literally got thrown to the ground and handcuffed when he tried to.

[Aziz]

Ask the DHS secretary a question about it. He's angry. His voters are angry.

[Hassan]

Hell, even my comment section is angry. And I get it. Guys, I will try to interrupt less, but no promises.

[Aziz]

So I sat down with the senator to talk about his eight Senate colleagues who folded on the shutdown. Three part question. Yeah, what the fuck? His criticisms of his own party when it comes to immigration.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Well, I don't know. But see, in my state, you know, the polls say that's bullshit.

[Aziz]

And his run in with Kristi Noem's goons. This video, straight up looked like a Waffle House fist fight, but it was in a goddamn government building. But you know me, I like to also keep it fun. So I also asked him if we are going to war with Venezuela. Tbd, but probably.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Hurry right away. No delays are. Make your daddy glad to have had such a bad.

[Aziz]

So this is a big moment for House Democrats.

[Hassan]

We have the release of the Epstein files.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Yes.

[Hassan]

Okay.

[Aziz]

This is a big.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Yeah, let's go.

[Aziz]

Okay, so now that we know everything we already knew is confirmed, will anything change? Because the American public pretty much knew there was a pedophile island, and everyone that they knew that was either a pedophile or pedophile adjacent was on this island. What now?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Well, here's the thing. I mean, as much as we have learned just recently, you can imagine there's a lot more where that came from, and it's bad. So there's a couple different ways of looking at this. First and foremost, the victims of that whole scheme, like they deserve justice. Right? And part of that will come with transparency and accountability. But in addition to that, it's not just political, like the way most people use the term political. But I think it's righteous to hold Trump accountable. What is he afraid of? What does he have to hide? Because he went the entire campaign trail saying, release the files. Release the files. Right, right. Attorney General Bondi says, oh, I have all the files. They have the list of names on my desk. And then from one day to the next, like, no, no, no, not after all, or no, no, no, don't release the files. What caused them to change and try to fight it for so long?

[Aziz]

What is your theory? What is the political game that they're playing? Is this vis a vis the election? Obviously, Democrats recently just had huge wins across the board. What's their strategy? What do you think it is?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Well, I mean, I think his change of tune. Ah, fine, go ahead and release him. I'm not afraid of anything. It's not just how else is, but who else is implicated and only time will tell. But I do appreciate that the House is on doing the right thing. I hope that the Senate and I'll do everything in my power to ensure the Senate does the right thing as well.

[Aziz]

Do you think this changes anything in regards to the Trump presidency or his ability to govern?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

It should be the bombshell that we expect it to be. Because when it comes to governance and when it comes to politics in the next election, there's a lot of important issues that we should be debating. But I think fundamental, not just at this moment in time, but especially in this moment in time, is who are the leaders that you can trust? Who are the leaders who are demonstrating the type of judgment that we deserve as Americans to be leading our cities, our states and our country? That's really the fundamental piece here.

[Aziz]

You know, I really wish this was true, but I'll be honest with you, Senator Padilla. I think when it comes to President Trump and Michael Jackson, they're very similar in that way. If you were a fan in the 80s, you're a fan now. There is no new piece of information that will make you change your opinion. You will be playing Thriller. And Everybody that's a DJT fan and a Michael Jackson fan from the 80s, they're able to go, look, would I let this person babysit my kids? No. But, man, oh, man, off the Wall is a great album. That's the way all of this stuff feels like it's playing out to me.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

With the difference being Donald Trump's not going to be on the ballot again for president. Right. So that's where I think it does cause people to think, okay, who's the next generation?

[Aziz]

And he also doesn't have the number of albums that Michael Jackson has.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Not even close.

[Aziz]

Not even close.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Or the rhythm. Yeah.

[Aziz]

Or the rhythm.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Or the dance skills.

[Aziz]

Yeah. He was in Home Alone 2. That was kind of a clever cameo. But beyond that, no, the catalog isn't as deep. Let's talk about the government shutdown. What happened with the government shutdown from my pov, here's what I saw. So Democrats shut down the government to fight to keep health care subsidies. This messes up SNAP benefits, and for some reason, flights. Then on election day, Democrats wipe the floor, right?

[Hassan]

Coast to coast, coast to coast, sweep. Pull out your brooms.

[Aziz]

So clearly the country's like, yes, go blue. And then they fold and the Democrats basically get nothing. So, three part question.

What the fuck happened?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Well, first, let me go back to the premise of the question. Democrats did not shut down the government for the healthcare piece. Democrats fought for health care and addressing the Affordable Care act premium tax credits. I know that's a little technical and we can talk about what that means for millions and millions of people across the country, but let's not lose sight of the fact that Republicans are in the majority right now. They're the majority in the Senate. Correct. They're the majority in the House, and they clearly occupy the White House. They could have, if they wanted to avoid the government shutdown by negotiating with us to address the spike in healthcare costs for millions of people that are happening now, not next year, not at the end of the year, but right now. They chose not to. Healthcare costs were not important enough to them to negotiate with us to try to address it. And so as a result, they shut down the government and we fought and fought and fought for 40 plus days to try to get those issues addressed. Yes, There was a handful of my Democratic colleagues who I believe made the wrong decision in negotiating a deal with Republicans to reopen the government without getting them to agree to address this spike in premiums. They said, well, we're going to continue to negotiate. We'll vote on something before the end of the year. Now we have to put our energy into that.

[Aziz]

Now there's that vote in December, right?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

The vote will happen before the end of the calendar year. Yes.

[Aziz]

So from what I understand is there's a promise for a future vote on health care services.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

And let me say this. Just when we got to the point at the end of September on, you know, do we hold out and put up a fight to address health care costs, or do we just fold then and go get Republicans what they want to reopen government. So many things that, you know, we had to think about. I, I know for me, on the one hand, I know who gets hurt the most during a government shutdown. Right. It's the most vulnerable communities. It's working people, totally. But it's not like that hasn't been happening all year long from the very beginning of this Administration, I mean, it seems like so long ago. Remember Elon Musk and Doge? Right? And the indiscriminate layoffs and hiring freezes and, and budget cuts. The budget bill that the Republicans pass, gutting health care.

[Aziz]

About the big beautiful bill.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Right, right. The big bullshit bill is what I call it. Right? Gutting health care spending way back then. All for what? To give billionaires bigger tax breaks. So the damage and destruction has been happening all year long. The shutdown was just the latest phase of that fight.

[Aziz]

When this vote eventually happens again in regards to health care subsidies, as you said, Democrats don't have the votes, so they'll end up losing that. And also for me, when, when that was said of, hey, there will be a future vote on this, it reminded me of when I had a day job and when I would check in with my manager and go, hey, this is a big problem. And then your manager goes, we'll circle back on this. And I'm like, we're not circling back.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

I'm a little bit older than you, at the risk of aging myself. When I was a kid growing up, there was this cartoon called Popeye, of course. Remember Wimpy?

[Aziz]

Yeah, sure.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

I'll give you a dollar Tuesday for a hamburger today.

[Aziz]

Okay?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

That's what came to mind for me. Like, no, no, no, no, no. A dollar a vote later to reopen the government now. Why? This crew of people have proven themselves to be untrustworthy time and time and time again, not just on health care, not just on the budget, but at anything that would bring about just a little bit of accountability, a little bit of balance, a little bit of control to this out of control administration. I'm not surprised at what he does, cuz we know Donald Trump. I'm not surprised though, anything that the administration, the cabinet does, cuz they're all a reflection of him. What I am beyond disappointed is my Republican colleagues who say behind closed doors that they're going to stand up and do the right thing, but then fold at every turn for whatever Donald Trump wants.

[Aziz]

I want to show you a clip of one of your Senate colleagues who voted with the Republicans to end the shutdown. This is Senator Sheehan when she was asked about this vote. Let's take a look.

[Senator Sheehan]

If this vote comes, I mean, as you say, it's guaranteed in December. This vote comes and fails and the subsidies then expire. Does this effort that you just went through, this vote that you have just taken, will it have been still worth it or will this feel like a failure?

No, because we are not going to give up. We're going to continue to fight on making sure that health care costs are affordable for Americans and they are going to know who's on their side and who is not.

[Aziz]

So this feels very paradoxical to me because she wants to show Americans that she will not give up the fight on health care, but she just gave.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Up and only time will tell. Right. So again, eight of my colleagues broke, well, the Republicans to reopen government.

[Aziz]

Yes.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

And now there's a negotiation to put something up for a vote to be determined. Is it going to be a, a genuine negotiation where we think enough Republicans will see the light and try to do the right thing with no guarantee of a vote in the House, by the way, that's another big concern.

[Aziz]

Well, what do you think is going to happen?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Yeah.

[Aziz]

What do you think is going to happen?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Or will we just craft sort of a here's what Democrats believe ought to be the way forward and then it fails for lack of Republican votes. Either way. It's heartbreaking either way. I hope the whole country remembers this when we go to the polls next year.

It's going to determine who people vote for and how people vote, as it should. And by the way, from a political standpoint, there's a heck of a lot more people in red states that are feeling this pinch than in blue states. It impacts Americans across the board.

[Aziz]

There is a theory that all eight Democratic senators who voted to end the shutdown, they aren't up for reelection in 2026. So there's a theory that Chuck Schumer basically used them as political pawns to go, hey, you're not coming back, so just go ahead, vote to end the shutdown. And then Chuck could just go, aw shucks, it wasn't me who voted for it. It was these 8 rascals over here. What do you think happened? Why did those eight senators not hold the plank?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

I honestly don't know. I've talked to only a couple of them.

Obviously I disagreed vehemently.

And there needs to be that intra party conversation. But let's not let that distract us from fundamentally who is it that put us in the position to begin with? Is Donald Trump and Republicans trying to decimate health care? It's been on the line your entire adult life, like you said. Yeah. In every election cycle since, including next year when we go back to the ballot. So look, as upset as I am about how this all went down at the end.

Got to move forward.

And get ready for the next battle. Right. Get ready for the Next battle. And if one of the takeaways from the shutdown experience is the American people are now a lot more aware of how critical and crisis mode this is and who to hold responsible, then, then that is a little bit of a good thing.

[Aziz]

Well, respectfully, I agree. I do agree. And respectfully, I also think something's got to change. Yeah, there is a critical juncture in the road ad.

Here's a fun fact. Any member of the Senate Democratic Caucus can force a vote on Chuck Schumer's continued leadership.

Would you support a leadership challenge to Chuck Schumer?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Yeah. Well, you. You. If you're going to entertain that question, yes. And like that question, it could be next month, next year, could be in a few years. We'll see if he runs again. And if he does, you know, I.

[Aziz]

Mean, if he runs again, it'll be 20, 28, and he will be a sp.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

The. The point I'm trying to get to is at some point, it's not just should he continue to lead or not, but if not him, then who? And that, again, there's 47 people that are having at some point that conversation. And maybe it's from within the current 47 or somebody that comes in next cycle and, you know, we never know.

[Aziz]

But, Senator Padilla, that could be you. This could be your Katniss Everdeen moment for real. If you've seen the Hunger Games, remember when Katniss gets up and says, I volunteer as tribute. Senator Padilla, if you did that, you would walk through that Senate cafeteria and people would whisper, thank you. They would do the three finger salute to you.

I mean, come on, Senator, even his glasses are trying to leave.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

That's funny. I got the visual. Look, I take the question seriously because I know it's a serious question. Serious question. Not just for Senate Democratic caucus, but for Congress and for the country.

[Aziz]

We're having this conversation here in New York City in midtown Manhattan in this post Mamdani moment. And what does that moment mean to a lot of people? What it means to me is a moment of rare moral clarity where moral clarity through and through can win. Not only can it survive political attacks and smear campaigns, but it can resonate deeply with a populace of people in a voting bloc that has felt fundamentally disregarded and discarded in politics. And so that's why, you know, Schumer, glasses, jokes aside, I am pitching. I am pitching the Hunger Games. Katniss Everdeen moment. At some point, someone has to say, yeah, I get it. I get it. I'm on the group thread with everyone, all 48 members are on the email. But I gotta step out of the pack.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Yeah. And I can tell you there's a number, number of members that are getting their weapons ready. But it's not to turn them on ourselves. It's to turn them on the folks that are standing in our way for making progress for working people across the country, whether it's on health care, whether it's on economic opportunity, whether it's for justice, and how this, you know, mass deportation agenda has played out this year. There is a lot to be worked up about and a lot to work against at the moment, but we got to play as a team, you know, and would we do need more fight. I think that's one thing that I, I hear back home and I hear it when I wake up in the morning. As I'm thinking through the day ahead. The stakes are so freaking high right now. Given so many things. Healthcare, cost of living, ICE rates, ICE razor out of control, the stakes are so high. So, yes, the general public does want to see more of that fight.

[Aziz]

You recently had a big win in California with Prop 50.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Yes.

[Aziz]

So what is Prop 50 and why do you think it was necessary?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

All right, so Prop 50, technically speaking, was a special election call by the governor and the legislature put forth to the voters of California say, hey, for the next couple of cycles, instead of the last map that was approved for congressional boundaries, let's consider this new map. Why? This wasn't a choice out of nowhere that leaders of California wanted to do. It was a hundred percent in response to Donald Trump calling Governor Abbott in Texas and saying, hey, find me five more Republican seats. You know what it reminded me of? When he called the Secretary of State of Georgia after the 2020 election and said, Find me 11,000 more votes. Right. They know that their record, their agenda, is so not just unpopular, but damaging to the country. They have no hope of holding on to power after the midterm elections unless they rig it before it starts. That's where this comes from. Both the legislation introduced and executive orders trying to make it harder for eligible citizens to register, to vote, to stay registered, to vote or to cast their ballot. Right. They're restricting voting rights wherever they can. The Department of Justice investigating states to purge voter rolls in certain states, not all. That's all intentional. And so on top of that, it's, well, let's rig the congressional district boundaries to create more Republican seats in their hopes of holding on to a majority because it's razor thin right now. And teetering at every turn. And so despite California's sort of good governance, you know, reform minded leadership, we know the stakes are too high with this administration. And so the legislature and the governor created Proposition 50, a new map that could, depending on how the voters vote next November, flip at least five currently Republican represented districts to Democratic districts to offset what's going on in Texas. That's what Prop 50 was. And put before the voters, not dictated to the voters, put before the voters and almost a 2 to 1 vote in favor. Right. California. This wasn't just about redistricting. This is about trying to put guardrails, put a check on this out of control wannabe dictator Donald Trump.

[Aziz]

This is an interesting philosophical argument because there's always this tug of war which.

[Hassan]

Is they break the rules.

[Aziz]

Why are we so feckless?

They're lowering the bar. We shouldn't lower the bar. And then when you don't lower the bar, holy shit, they're getting away with all this bullshit. And but it's a slippery slope.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Democrats historically been that case. Right. Like we're not going to lower ourselves to their standards.

[Hassan]

When they go low, we go high.

[Aziz]

Famous.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

This is not the race to the bottom its head are like. No. The times we're living in are so extreme, so dangerous, so perilous that we have no choice but to fight fire with fire. We cannot unilaterally disarm ourselves.

[Aziz]

There are two ways to approach politics. You can change the weather or you can be the weatherman. What do I mean by that? Sometimes you will have colleagues of yours on both sides of the aisle that will do this. Where is public sentiment? And they'll follow that.

Then there are people that actually change the weather. They go. One of your colleagues, Bernie Sanders. Bernie has been talking about economic inequality, healthcare as a human right. He has been beating this drum since the 1970s. And look, it's very difficult to change the weather. But he has played I'm going to change the weather. I am not the weatherman. I will not go where the winds blow. I am here to exhibit moral clarity and change the weather. Which do you think is the best approach to politics? Being the weatherman or changing the weather?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

I think changing the weather.

You know, the way I learned.

Getting into electoral politics. Right?

[Aziz]

Yeah.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

People have asked me, I've always. You were always interested in politics. Like growing up, the, where I grew up, how I grew up. You know, we, we were raised with community involvement, even community activism. But it wasn't until I was out of college that I realized the value of electoral politics more specifically. And so your reason to get involved, your reason to even run for office, there's got to be a why, right? There's got to be a purpose. There's got to be a mission. You know, you think the world or the country or just. Or just your community can be better, and you want to move it in that direction, right? That's. That's the weather change you're trying to create. Sometimes it's easy. Most of the time it's not easy. Sometimes.

[Aziz]

And a lot of times you'll lose.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

It takes decades.

[Aziz]

Yeah, you may lose, and people may look to you and go, why? Why would you do that?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

But if that's your why, that's what you committed to. That's. That's why even, you know, to this day, as tough as it is right now, as hard as it is right now, that's why I still get up every morning and go to work because of that challenge in front of me on a number of issues. But you want to talk about weather versus Weatherman? Let's talk about immigration.

[Aziz]

I mean, you have been a person who has fought to change the weather on that issue. Take us through that.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Both my life journey, right. Growing up as a proud son of immigrants and seeing how hard not just my parents worked, but pretty much the parents of all my friends in the neighborhood working hard so that the next generation has a little bit better. You know, we can talk stats. I represent the state of California. Not the most popular, not just the most populous state in the nation, the most diverse state in the nation, home to more immigrants than any state in the nation. Mostly documented, many undocumented as well. But we're also the fourth largest economy in the world, not despite the immigrant population, but because of the contributions of so many immigrants as workers, of course, as consumers, as entrepreneurs. But I share all that because a lot of times in my conversations with colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I mean, Republicans on immigration right now are where they are. But even on the Democratic side, too many of my colleagues get too uncomfortable too quickly when it comes to the immigration conversation and what it means as an issue. And it's not until ICE and CBP and the National Guard shows up in other cities and other states that people start coming around like, oh, now I know what you were trying to say.

[Aziz]

For the longest time, the Democratic Party, let's go from like the Clinton era to the Obama era to even, you know, let's even say early Biden era, there was always this convo around the quote, Path to citizenship. You, as a senator, have always had this optimistic purview as there's a path to citizenship. Human beings have rights and the human beings that come and contribute to this country and this economy. We need to create a path to citizenship. But I have seen a lot of your colleagues pull a Hakeem Jeffries and go, where's the wind blowing? Secure the border. And they have taken this conversation from path to citizenship, which is a path of dignity, equality and human rights, and switch up real quick and go get these fucking drug dealers out of here. Secure the border. How will we ever get the conversation back to the path to citizenship, which is fundamentally a conversation around the path to human dignity?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Yeah, well, it starts with me not being quiet in the halls of Congress. I mean, as long as I'm there, as long as I have a voice, I will make sure that my colleagues have no choice but to continue to hear my pitch, my journey, and my arguments for why we need to move in that direction. You said a couple things that I think are worth just sort of fleshing out just a little bit.

[Aziz]

Please.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

The secure the border piece. Of course. We need a secure, orderly, humane border. Nobody disagrees with that. And even to the Trump language, those dangerous, violent criminals, there's no disagreement. If that was the only group of folks that were being targeted for detention or, or deportation, I think everybody wants. Yeah, but the reality is so more complex than that. Right? The vast majority of immigrants in the United States are law abiding. They don't have the dangerous, violent criminal records, but they're disproportionately by a lot the people that are being targeted and rounded up in these immigration rate. So when I talk to my colleagues, like, we gotta modernize our immigration system. Yes, let's be smart about a secure border. There's a lot of technology monitoring, certain surveillance technologies that can be applied there much more cost efficiently than building a wall from coast to coast. Number one, they too quickly forget the millions of people who have been in the United States for years and years, in some cases decades, not breaking the law, working hard, paying taxes, raising families. They deserve better than to live in the shadows, if you will. They deserve to come out of the shadows, take steps towards legal status and, and hopefully eventually citizenship. That's what's gotten lost in all this. That's why my first bill when I joined the Senate was the Citizenship for Essential Workers Act. You said a minute ago, we're in midtown Manhattan. Do you remember during the height of the COVID 19 pandemic that people banged their pots and pans out the window in appreciation for essential workers, frontline workers who couldn't zoom it in. More than 5 million federally recognized essential workers weren't just immigrants. They're undocumented immigrants. Again, if they have a clean criminal history, if they paid their taxes raising families and they're putting their lives on the line for the rest of us, don't you think that maybe, just maybe, they earned a step towards legal status and eventual citizenship? That's the very first bill that I introduced. And so we're going to keep fighting that fight because it's not just good for those people, it's not just good for their families. It's good for us as a country and for our economy.

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[Aziz]

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[Aziz]

AT&T.

Do you ever feel alienated in this fight by your own party because you're keeping the agenda on that path?

And it feels like. And I've been watching a lot of the podcasts and TV appearances from some of your Democratic colleagues. They keep going towards the secure the border, secure the border, secure the border. Do you feel alienated by this?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

I'm not gonna lie. At times, yes. But. But when I recognize that, again, that's my impetus, that's my motivation, that's my purpose in those moments and calling it out like it is. Right. I'm not afraid to talk to Democrats and say, hey, when it comes to issues like reproductive rights, we're all pro choice. We don't budge, we don't negotiate. You know that. That's a given. Yeah. Or when it comes to equality. Nope. We're Democrats, we're united. We don't budge, we don't negotiate, we don't waver on that. When it comes to voting rights, when it comes to labor rights, when we come to climate change is real. That's all firm. But when it comes to immigration. Oh, well, I don't know. But see, in my state, you know, the, the polls say this like that's bullshit. That's bullshit.

[Aziz]

I mean, back in June, you confronted DHS Secretary Christine Ulm, who I see many a time when I'm flying. They have her videos on repeat as I go through tsa. And you were Handcuffed by a few doughy white dudes. And this video, straight up looked like a Waffle House fist fight, but it was in a goddamn government building, an.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

FBI office in a federal building in Los Angeles. I mean, if anybody there felt there was a danger, there was a whole lot of things that they would have done wrong for that to be the case.

[Aziz]

How are you feeling about this now, in retrospect? I mean, we're months away from that incident. As you've processed this, how do you feel?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Well, still process at a whole lot of levels. But you know, coming out of that incident, there was a couple things that were very clear to me. Number one, if that's what this administration will do to a senator with a question, then you can just imagine how they are treated. Not how they're willing to or capable of how they are treating so many people across the country when the cameras aren't there. Right through this mass deportation agenda.

[Aziz]

You're a sitting senator, so yeah, can you imagine what they're doing to someone who does not have that position?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

We've seen a lot of videos on the news and on social media of what's being captured. Imagine what's not being captured, number one. Number two, this was Los Angeles back in June. And we knew from the beginning Los Angeles was just the test case. And I shared with my colleagues, both Democrat and Republican, when I came back the following week, they have laid the groundwork. This is the playbook, folks. It happened to be Los Angeles, it happened to be on immigration, but they laid the groundwork for doing this anywhere in the country on any issue to try to quell dissent. And lo and behold, there's now National Guard troops roving Washington D.C. you see what's happening in Chicago, you've seen what's happened in Portland, you've seen what's happening in Memphis. Now it's North Carolina. Where next?

[Aziz]

I mean, every day I see another clip of ICE or a DHS agent pointing their gun at random.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

People dragging a childcare teacher out of the classroom in front of kids. You know, smoke bombs in a Halloween parade.

[Aziz]

Totally. Apparently they pepper sprayed a one year old. You know, ICE agents hanging outside of apartment buildings, schools.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

No less than 170 United States citizens that have been detained, including veterans. You know, the father of three Marines in Southern California. That was violent.

[Aziz]

But where are they, where are they getting these people? I mean, is it Reddit, Planet Fitness, my old high school school? Where are they recruiting these people to be a part of this?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Well, that's that, that's another big challenge that we're gonna have to confront for years to come, because earlier this year, when that big bill went through, there was cuts to this, cuts to that, cuts to this, cuts to that. The one big increase in budget was for ice. And so now they're going on a hiring frenzy to try to build up the capacity of ICE to be the largest law enforcement agency in the world, largely the military of a lot of other countries. That's where their priorities.

[Aziz]

I don't think people realize that it's scary right now. You think it's scary right now? It's about to get way scarier. Those facilities, those detention facilities need to be filled. Those officer positions need to be filled.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

And, you know, somebody's making money off the whole operation. But here's another scary part that a lot of people aren't talking about. Whether it's the new hires, but more importantly, people that have been redirected from other jobs within Homeland Security, but other agencies from the Department of Justice, FBI and otherwise, and even the Department of Defense. What other critical missions are now being left undone because of the singular focus on supposed immigration enforcement? Where else is our national security now more vulnerable because of the shifting not just the priorities, but of resources by this administration?

[Aziz]

Okay, so I want to show you something. Let's look at this. Actual DHS recruitment tweet. So this is from @DHS gov. This is Homeland Security. Okay. This is Kristi Gnomes division. Defend your hearth and home. Join.ice.gov the enemies are at the gate.

What is this incel. Game of Thrones bullshit? What's happening here?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Yeah, I mean, more than anything else, she continues to clearly try to appeal to an audience of one. She knows this is what gets Donald Trump worked up. Right? This is what he loves to see.

[Aziz]

Well, he loves to see a bunch of dudes dressed up like they're at a Renaissance Fair spectacle, fight drug dealers.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

The spectacle. Right. To get people riled up. That's what. That's what it's for. It's not about public safety. It's about the show.

[Aziz]

Sadly, I think public safety is also downstream from language. So let's take what Kristi Noem did in the way she describes your behavior when you had that. Let's call it for what it is. When you were handcuffed in June in a federal building, Kristi Noem said, you, quote, lunged towards the podium.

[Senator Sheehan]

This man burst into the room, started lunging towards the podium, interrupting me and elevating his voice, and was stopped. Did not identify himself.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Senator Alex Padilla.

[Aziz]

Think about the language that's being used to describe him. This brown dude launched himself towards me, right? When white people.

Walk, they walk. They walk. Latinos lunge.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

You were.

[Aziz]

You were walking in a federal building. Pam Bondi said you stormed the event. These words, I think, have meaning. What they're implying is you are a threat. When you look at the video, I see a sitting senator being thrown to the ground and handcuffed as if you had a gun on you or you were distributing illegal paraphernalia and drugs.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

They're trying to change reality again. Right. First of all, thank God there's video out there for the whole world to see what did or did not happen. Second, let me tell you something that hasn't been said by them. They have. They haven't acknowledged, but the records are there. From the moment I arrived at that federal building, I was met at the entrance, at the door by two escorts, an FBI agent and a National Guardsman.

[Aziz]

Yeah.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

So that I didn't go anywhere in the building without them taking me there. They put me through screening like any other visitor into that building. That's fine. Escorted me up to the FBI office conference room where I was scheduled to have a briefing by the number two of Northern Command of what this military operation was in Los Angeles. That's why I was there to begin with.

[Aziz]

Yeah.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

I had no idea that just down the hall there was going to be this press conference. So I asked the two people who were escorting me everywhere, hey, can we go listen in for a few minutes? They walked me down the hall, they opened the door, they let me in. They stood by me for the whole. The whole experience. Of course, Bondi, Gnome, Trump. They're not going to tell you that. But that's the truth. That's the truth. And third, when I say they're trying to change reality because they want. They want to try to convince people to perceive their wrongs that day a different way. Just like some of them were quoted as calling January 6th just another day at the office.

[Aziz]

Sure.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Yeah.

[Aziz]

Yeah. Using language to deem things either safe or unsafe.

[Hassan]

That's.

[Aziz]

That's really what it's about. Let me ask you this. What are you hearing from your constituents in regards to all these ICE raids.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

And what we've been hearing for months and months and months? It's a lot of genuine fear. They feel terrorized. And it's not just constituents. I mean, there's extended family and friends that are very. The emotions are very raw because, again, it has started in Los Angeles and It's still going on in Los Angeles. Maybe not quite at the, at the volume that it was back in June and July. Just some indicators. Right. Because I'll go back and you try to visit some of the restaurants and see what's going on and try to keep a pulse on stuff. And you have restaurant owners saying, first of all, I have a handful of employees who are afraid to come to work. Yeah. Whether it's restaurants out in the fields, car washes everywhere in between. And you have business owners saying their clientele is afraid to come shop in person. You think that's going to have an economic impact beyond just the terror impact when you have priests telling their parishioners, hey, if you don't feel comfortable coming to church because we've seen ICE raids and detentions at churches and other houses of worship, don't worry about it. Just follow the livestream next Sunday instead.

[Aziz]

You and I, we are technically second generation immigrants. Our parents came to this country and they fought really freaking hard for us to have a better life.

This past election, we saw an increase in the voting bloc between Latino Americans, Indian Americans and Muslim Americans. That actually shifted. And a lot of people in our community voted for Donald Trump. How do we unpack.

The mental gymnastics people in our own community had to do where they simultaneously voted for this? And then now it became crueler than they ever expected.

And they're now having doubts and second.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Thoughts and in some cases even remorse. Right. Because they didn't think it would affect them or their loved ones. But surprise, surprise. Yes, it absolutely has. I mean, it begins at the most fundamental level with conversation. Right. We can't be so pissed off at the cousin that voted for Trump that you're never going to talk to him again because that's never going to bring him back. So we have to have that conversation. From an electoral standpoint, I think it is worth diving into the numbers. And while, yes, there were some.

Latinos that voted for Trump, they used to vote Democratic before there was a lot more that just didn't vote. Yeah. That we need to get back into the game. So how you bring somebody back from having voted Republican to Democrat versus not voting to voting again are two different conversations. And they're both important, but shining the light on the truth, like, hey, without judgment, cousin, now, you thought this was what was going to happen, but this is what's happening. And so open your eyes and realize what really is going on and who's behind it.

[Aziz]

I have two things, and this is, you know, I know you're A sitting senator, but I don't want to get into therapy here. But I have two things that are very real conversations that have to happen, I think in California, but within our own communities. The first thing that happens, and I know this feeling, when you come to this country, there is, once I get in, man, I am so grateful to get in. But what, what oftentimes happens is you pull the ladder up. I got in, pulled the ladder up, shut the door. And I think that's a byproduct of scarcity mentality.

We grew up in households where our parents were the first people to break real generational economic circumstances to give us a better opportunity. And that plays itself out in many different ways. You start hoarding red crushed pepper from Domino's, you got the Taco Bell packets in the drawer. But it also manifests in, hey, I'm not voting for anything that supports a nanny state. I gotta take care of me and mine. Which I understand they traversed from far and wide places just to get here. But when I see that behavior, this pulled the ladder up, I think it comes from a scarcity mentality where you feel like you can't help others because you have to help yourself.

But the other sad part about it is that the byproduct of that is a lack of empathy. Empathy requires you feeling that, I'm full, I have enough and I will be okay. Therefore, I have enough to protect others that may be vulnerable. How do we combat that?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

So going back to the conversation about what happened in the last election.

[Aziz]

Yeah.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

For all the big bluster and talk about immigration. Immigration and deporting those violent criminals. Right. Because for me, it was the flashback to his first ride down that gold escalator in Trump Tower in 2016, when he first launched the first campaign.

[Aziz]

Right.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

There was a lot of economic anxiety being felt last November, and a lot of people cast their vote based on that. Maybe they thought it was independent of immigration. When you really stop and think about it, it's interrelated.

[Aziz]

But you're talking about something very interesting here, Senator, which is, I don't have enough.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

It goes back to protecting what you have.

[Aziz]

And when you feel like you don't have enough, you have very little empathy and very little understanding for why would I care about what other people are doing or what their needs are? I don't have enough. And what's interesting about that is that both affects immigrant community and non immigrant communities. Americans at large feel like they don't have enough. So how is empathy for civil rights, human rights, immigration rights ever Possible in a place where abundance is only felt by the equities class and the people who live in my state, Connecticut, but nowhere else.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Yeah. Again, through conversation, through dialogue, through being in experience with each other and not alone. And maybe it manifests itself into committee organizing or, you know, volunteering with an organization or joining a protest or getting ready for the next campaign. Or maybe it's just somebody coming home from church and having to remind themselves what. What their values or faith is based on. And I bring that up because as you're talking.

I reflect on how I was raised. And trust me, there was times.

When it was tough making ends meet, but we were raised with the values of if there's a friend or even a neighbor or even a stranger, and you do what you can even when times are tough for you. In Spanish, my mom used to say, le chamos masavados fijoles. Just add more water to the pot of beans. Right. If we're going to make. We're going to. We're going to stretch this out. Sure. If we need to. Because that's just the right thing to do. I think that's in most people's heart. We just got to pull it out of each other.

[Aziz]

Sometimes you talk about this idea of connecting with your family members, but also your community. And community organizing can be done in a way that has profound positive impacts. I don't know if you saw this, but in Chicago recently, activists have been using. Have been using whistles. People are here with their whistles as an alert for the neighborhood, almost like they're basketball coaches. Like whistles? Yeah. To spot an ICE raid so someone will blow the whistle, and that'll signal to their neighbors or people in their apartment building or on the street to come down and start recording the incident or to start yelling at the ICE agents.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

So, so proud of that. I'm sorry to interrupt, but I just got to. I have to. It started the 2.0 of the rapid Response Network. Best practices that we saw develop so quickly in Los Angeles. I mean, going back to last November, once the election results were kind of known, the community was. Knew it had to get ready. And so you have. Not just in Los Angeles, but now in a whole lot of other places with some slightly different tactics. People that are organized, whether they work for an advocacy organization or they're just volunteers, people know, hey, when you see something go down, tweet it out, you know, text your friends. And we got to mobilize and rally in real time and start taking pictures, start taking video. It says, A lot when parents and teachers are organized enough to put a perimeter of human beings around a school to ensure a safe drop off for kids in the morning and pick up in the afternoon. But it's an example again of people coming together even in these times of adversity and crisis.

[Aziz]

And what's kind of heartwarming about that is it's non violent community defense. You have a group of people coming together to come down, start recording and give ICE the middle finger.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Yeah. And look, it's not like our country hasn't been through challenging times before, but we always come out just a little bit better and a little bit better. And so we're in some of those difficult times that I can recall. And will we come out a little bit better? I believe so. But we have a choice to make. Are you going to be passive about it and wait for it to happen or let somebody else ensure that it happens or are we going to be a part of making it happen?

[Aziz]

How do you as a senator ensure.

That your constituents feel safety and security? All of this discourse, everything that we've been talking about right now is all a byproduct of this feeling of scarcity and lack of safety. Look at every kind of hot button, culture, war issue, terrorism, the war on drugs, all of these sort of things are, you are not safe and your kids are not safe. What do you do to ensure.

And message to constituents and people that, hey, I know times may be hard and you may be scared, but hey, here is a path to abundance where you won't feel scarcity anymore and you will feel safe.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Well, I think some, there's a piece before you start messaging and communicating that you got to listen.

[Aziz]

Yeah.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Because people want to be heard.

[Aziz]

Yeah.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

First. And if they feel like they're being heard, they're going to be more receptive to what you may share with them as. And here's maybe why we should be not as afraid. That message for me starts with letting them know that, hey, I get it and that's why I'm fighting.

As your member of the Senate.

On these issues. And then here's what else is going on so you are not alone kind of theme or message and then invite people to participate. Maybe for them that's too much. They're just trying to put food on the table, trying to get kids home from school and trying to make through the week. But for those who are able and interested in joining that greater cause, what does that mean? Is that Maybe writing a $5 check to the ACLU is that maybe showing up for the first time ever at a school board meeting or at city hall to testify on something. Maybe it's for the first time sending a message to their representative. Maybe it's joining the next no Kings rally because they're better. Damn, be a few more between now and the next election. And for sure, it's making sure if you're eligible that you register to vote and you make your plan to vote not just in the next November general, but in the primaries.

[Aziz]

Do you think Americans feel safer? You know, when I see Christine Ohm and I see these videos that circulate on Twitter.

I think there's two possibilities. There's a group of people that feel safer seeing these guys hop out of vans and ski masks and put handcuffs on people. There's just something about get the bad guys, clean up the streets. And then I think there's a second group of people and I think I identify with them a little bit more, which is when I see ICE agents outside of Disneyland or outside of a school.

Tearing apart families, I'm horrified by the cruelty. It's the cruelty that breaks my heart. I wonder if you zoom out, do you think Americans two years, four years, six years from now will feel safer because of these videos?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

I think more, a lot more people are feeling the cruelty part of it than the safety part of it, because it's all politics is local. Are there some people in America today that feel like, well, maybe the neighborhood they live in isn't as safe? Fact of the matter is crime in most major cities in America are significantly down. So what they see on TV is that news, Is that entertainment? Maybe a hybrid of both. But what's really happening in my reality, I think much more the economic anxiety is what people are feeling than the concern maybe about crime. But everybody, or most people, I should say, are seeing the cruelty of this administration in so many ways. Most visibly, it's, yes, ice, Border Patrol and the tactics that they've chosen to pursue do. But the cruelty around cutting people's health care. When you hear the stories of maybe somebody had to discontinue their cancer treatment because of cuts at the federal level, or we mentioned this earlier, the nutrition assistance programs snap. All of a sudden, elderly children in need may not have their next meal because of this administration and the Republican majority. That cruelty doesn't go away. That the feeling and sensing that cruelty doesn't go away right away. And that's why I think people should be not just insulted, but offended at the huge billionaire tax breaks that were done and extended earlier this year because but for that, imagine how much more we could invest in access to health care and quality of health care.

[Hassan]

I ate too much on Thanksgiving and you know I wasn't eating that salad on Thanksgiving.

[Aziz]

No way.

[Hassan]

I had carbs, carbs and more carbs. I think I hit negative nutritional value. I focused on mashed potatoes, stuffing and rolls.

[Aziz]

And I had pumpkin pie. I think that's a vegetable.

[Hassan]

Thankfully I have Cachava as my post holiday recovery tool. Cachava is a delicious all in one nutrition shake. Chock full of vitamins, minerals and plant based protein. It keeps me fueled and energetic since I am actually giving my body what it needs. I already know it's going to be hard to stay away from the Christmas cookies, but thankfully Cachava just came out with the new favorite flavor of mine, a limited edition chocolate mint. I love a peppermint bark situation and now I can enjoy it without the inevitable sugar induced tummy ache.

[Aziz]

Now sometimes if I'm feeling really crazy, I will add it to my morning coffee.

[Hassan]

Now it's a healthy peppermint mocha.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Bam.

[Hassan]

The best part? Cachava is super nourishing without any artificial colors, sweeteners or preservatives. Food Coma Recovery made easy. Go to kachava.com and use code hassan for 15% off your next order. That's kachava k a c h a v a.com code hassan for 15% off the holidays are about family, both chosen.

[Aziz]

And given against our will.

[Hassan]

But unfortunately, we cannot always physically be.

[Aziz]

With our loved ones. The next best thing?

[Hassan]

Giving them a little holiday cheer by sending them an aura frame. As much as I hate to admit it, I do miss spending the holidays with my little sister. Sure, we would fight growing up, but.

[Aziz]

I would prefer to call it banter. But it was always a lot of fun.

[Hassan]

So this year I am sending her an aura frame preloaded with pictures of us as kids celebrating together. I know it'll make us both feel a little closer. Plus, with aura frames you can preload a personalized message to appear when it's delivered. Mine's gonna say I've always been the cuter one because you can't wrap togetherness, but you can frame it for a limited time. Save on the perfect gift by visiting auraframes.com to get $35 off Aura's best selling Carver Matte frames named number one by Wirecutter by using promo code hassan@ch that is a U R A frames.com promo code hassan. This deal is exclusive to listeners and Frames sell out fast, so order yours right now to get it in time for the holidays. Support the show by mentioning us at checkout.

[Aziz]

Terms and conditions apply.

[Hassan]

As someone who is culinary challenged, the holidays are my biggest op.

[Aziz]

I love the idea of hosting my family and friends, but what the heck.

[Hassan]

Am I supposed to feed these people? Thankfully, Whole Foods Market entered the chat. They are heat in each sides from the prepared foods department have single handedly kept my family together and synthetic coloring free.

[Aziz]

Yay. You know what's better than hosting? Celebrating in other people's homes.

[Hassan]

Because for those gatherings, I am not responsible for the full spread. I just gotta show up with a.

[Aziz]

Host gif and that is easy money.

[Hassan]

At Whole Foods they have seasonal candles, a floral department full of bouquets and cookie gift boxes in the bakery. Pro tip.

[Aziz]

I go for the expert curated cheeses and grab some crackers to go with them. Guaranteed hit. But if you really want to impress.

[Hassan]

Whole Foods has gift sets in their.

[Aziz]

Body care and wellness departments free of.

[Hassan]

Over 240 ingredients that don't meet their standards.

[Aziz]

Going back to your hometown Whole Foods.

[Hassan]

Market, you can order online for pickup and delivery in select zip codes. It's the best way to avoid people.

[Aziz]

From your high school. Shop for everything you need at Whole Foods Market, your holiday headquarters.

Let's talk about the National Guard deployment. You recently saw a National Guard presence in Los Angeles. Here in New York City, we are about to see a National Guard deployment because we are now a Muslim caliphate. I don't know if you heard Zoran Mamdani 1. What impact did the deployment of the military in Los Angeles have and what is happening right now, Senator Padilla?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Twofold. Number one, it only served to increase tensions and fear in the community. And we're talking about our experiences growing up as children of immigrants. On the occasions of traveling to Mexico. When I was a kid, my wife reminded me of this because she went through the same thing. It wasn't uncommon as you're just a kid visiting relatives and roaming the streets or playing soccer or whatever to see that truck of soldiers just kind of barreling through that image and the message that it was supposed to send. Right. That's what our parents left to try to find a better life here in the United States. And now, no, we're being subjected to that.

It's intentional. Very intentional. The way it's all started. The way it started in Los Angeles and Chicago. Trump is just looking for any sort of pretext to start sending in not just the ICE raids, but any response to that as peaceful and law abiding as it can be, he's going to declare an escalation and violence is out of control in order to justify the federalization deployment of National Guard. That's their playbook. And the more we stand up and march and rally and protest, as peaceful as it can be, he's only going to want to escalate and escalate to the point where they sent the Marines into Los Angeles. That's his playbook. That's why I say it's not about public safety for him, it's about the spectacle. So sadly, you can expect some version of that in New York or elsewhere. But back to the National Guard specifically, and the Marines for that matter, if you were to talk to them, they'll tell you this is not what they signed up for. What's happening? Listen, the Marines, they have these visions of training and then being deployed where necessary to keep our country safe at a global level, not being pitted against fellow citizens, fellow Americans domestically. So they're not happy to be there either. But they're being used by this administration for this image of a mass deportation agenda.

[Aziz]

I want to talk about California a little bit, if that's okay with you. So we both rep California. You're literally a representative of California. But I rep California. I've lived here on the east coast for over 10 years. But everybody knows, like I'm a Cali kid. When I go back, it's like a homecoming for me. I love NorCal, the Bay and Southern California. As a representative from. From California. And obviously you are on the national stage now. In what ways should America be more like California? And in what ways should America be less like California?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Wow. More like California. Besides the quality of our produce, right. We get spoiled.

[Aziz]

We get great produce.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Yeah.

[Aziz]

Garbage. And the 13 colonies here, we get garbage. It's absolute garbage.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

It's, I guess different breeds or I don't know.

[Aziz]

I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is. But top to bottom, like the produce you get from Costco on the west coast is fucking incredible.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Yeah. Like I mentioned earlier, the economic power of California. Right. You would imagine that, that the fourth largest economy in the world and growing would be something to be emulated, you know, state by state, the country as a whole. Leaders in agriculture and entertainment, in tech, travel, tourism, just on and on and on. I think diversity is also a key part of that culturally, not just economically. Whether it's in Northern California, the Bay Area, Los Angeles. Think of any cuisine in the world you could want and there's a restaurant for that. Probably multiple and really, really good. We're spoiled. That's something to embrace. It makes us all richer as a result. So come on to the Cal. Come on out to California and experience it. See for yourself. New York's not too bad. You got some good restaurants around town.

[Aziz]

Yeah, it's decent. But I still think the food in California, pound for pound, just the diversity of the food is absolutely incredible. And I get a lot of heat for saying this, by the way. I think LA is a better food.

[Hassan]

City than New York. And I'm telling you, when.

[Aziz]

When I say that in New York, people like, they look at me like they're gonna cut my body into 50 people, 50 pieces and throw me in the goddamn Hudson river when I say stuff like that.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Yeah. And maybe it's oversimplifying by dwelling on food, but I think people coming together and experiencing each other's backgrounds and heritages and cultures and traditions, I mean, that's what this nation has been about over the course of generations. We are a nation of immigrants. Right. Going back to its founding and even before then. And nowhere is it.

Lived as much as in California and cities like New York across the country.

[Aziz]

You know, it's so interesting, and I'm sure you see this, and it's sad if, you know, working in politics, you have to engage with the hellhole that is Twitter. If you look at Twitter discourse, China.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

To read the comments.

[Aziz]

Yeah, do not read the guy. I mean, it's weird. You have to, like, oddly engage with it and then not engage with it. But. But here's the point that I'm trying to make. If you were to engage with both cable news discourse and Internet discourse around California, there is somehow this paradoxical, conflicting idea that multiculturalism and innovation are two different things. By the way, this is a conversation that's happening in the UK as well, that multiculturalism and innovation, modernity, new ideas.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Are at odds with me.

[Aziz]

But let me just tell you something. In the state of California, you simultaneously have.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Have.

[Aziz]

Let's take. I think one of the most multicultural fan bases in the country is LA Dodger fans. It's both an egalitarian ticket price, and those fans really represent what I think the state of California is. You have Latinos, you have white people, you got Filipinos, you got a couple Indians. We don't really watch baseball, we watch cricket, but it's okay. That is a representation of Cali to me. And that's happening simultaneously where there is every major tech company, Is there every form of innovation that has shaped modern civilization for the past half century happened within essentially a 300 mile radius that is Silicon Valley. So as you're shitposting California, you're, you're doing it on a device that was made, designed and built in California. And this is happening in a state that has every ethnicity and language, language.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Many of those companies, if not the actual technology itself, brought to you by an immigrant or a child.

[Aziz]

Correct? Yeah. Yeah. It saddens a lot of people to find out that Steve Jobs, his father was Syrian. They cannot stand it. But I say that to say the heat that California gets is homelessness. They think California is the walking dead. Nearly one in four homeless people in the United States live in California. And earlier this year, Governor, Governor Newsom called on cities and towns to ban homeless encampments. Which made me feel so dumb because my entire life I thought the way to really combat homelessness was housing and affordability and job opportunities and mental health services. When in reality you could have just been like, hey.

[Hassan]

Go away.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Right? And then it just gets solved. Who would have thunk? Who would have thunk?

[Aziz]

So did that work?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

You're trying to tee up my conversation with my housing for all act, which is sort of like the, the comprehensive list of best practices. Right. When you. When it comes to both the housing affordability crisis and homelessness, because they're interconnected, it's for different reasons. People who end up homeless don't end up homeless by choice. Some something life circumstances led them there, whether it's education, job loss, you know, mental illness, etc. And that by the way, is, is a big piece. My wife's a mental health advocate. I've learned a lot from her. But I know enough to know that every person with the mental illness is homeless and not every person who's homeless is mentally ill. But there's obviously a significant crossover there. But whether it's how we most sustainably get people off the streets, it's not just temporary housing. It's wraparound services. Is it access to health care, counseling, job training, et cetera. So they can get off the street for good, not just sporadically. Housing affordability, we need more supply, man. We need more supply. Because the housing construction has not kept up with our population growth in California and a lot of places around the country. In the meantime, rents and mortgages are way too expensive. So some sort of first time homebuyer program which we have, we need to expand it more significantly. Renters assistance program, low income vouchers, which we have at the Federal level, we need to expand more. But these are all provenly successful policies and strategies that, once again, our Republican colleagues are feverishly trying to cut, cut, cut, decimate, not invest in.

[Aziz]

Just a quick, fun last question. Are we going to war with Venezuela?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Not as far as I can tell by the book. But in practice, it certainly has approached that fine line.

[Aziz]

What's happening? Because they keep blowing up boats.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

They keep blowing up boats.

[Aziz]

It's like Pirates of the Caribbean meets drug dealers. That's what I'm reading.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Legal authority. Right. That's. That's part of the problem here. And. But the fundamental question is, to what end? What's the goal? You know, I. I hope and I pray that this isn't the new version of invading Iraq for their oil, because Venezuela's got a lot of oil, and we know Trump likes oil. He wants to drill, baby drill. Maybe not just in the United States, and he's obviously got friends in the industry who stand to make a lot of money.

[Aziz]

So do you think the playbook is similar to what happened potentially in Iraq, which is, you use the COVID of this is about safety as a way to invade another country for natural resources?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

I mean, that playbook has been played so many times over the course of our history, let's hopefully have learned from it by now.

[Aziz]

Is there any way to change the discourse around this issue or.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Yeah, well, that's part of not just the general public being aware, speaking up, standing up, but members of Congress living up to their oath.

Not just Democrats. Republicans are in the majority.

[Aziz]

Senator Padilla, I've been given the signal that it's our time to wrap this up. We have had a wonderful conversation. There's many things that you and I, we, I think, pleasantly are in alignment on. Can I just air out one last tiff that I have with you?

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Here we go.

[Aziz]

Before we get out of here, when you were a state senator In California.

In 2008, you authored a bill mandating calorie disclosures at chain restaurants.

And I just want to let you know.

That you ruined P F Chang's for me. I had no idea lettuce wraps had that many calories in them.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

So you realize I lost so many friends over this, right? Yeah. When that bill was passed, signed into law, I had text messages left and right. Thank you. Thank you. I had no idea. Or how could you? You have ruined P F Changs.

[Aziz]

P F Chang or other lettuce snacks. Yeah, forever. I'm fucking up my entire diet, literally, at appetizers.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Hey, you're still entitled to a cheat day.

[Aziz]

That's what I tell myself. And that's what I tell my doctor. Senator Padilla, thank you so much for joining us on the show.

[Senator Alex Padilla]

Thanks for having me.

[Hassan]

If you haven't subscribed to Lemonada Premium yet, now's the perfect time. Because guess what? You can listen completely ad free. Plus you'll unlock exclusive bonus content like Halle Berry on how to be a good partner during menopause or Mehdi Hassan on the dumbing down of media clips you won't hear anywhere else. Just tap that subscribe button on Apple Podcasts or head to lemonadapremium.com to subscribe.

[Aziz]

On any other app.

[Hassan]

That's lemonadepremium.com.

[Aziz]

Don'T miss out.

[Rachel Hampton]

Hey, psst. You didn't hear this from me, but Normal Gossip is back for its ninth season. Join me, Rachel Hampton, as I share the juiciest gossip from the real world with some very special guests. This season, we're bringing back some old friends, a Radiotopia buddy, and for the first time ever, a Nobel laureate. That's right, we have Malala on season nine. Normal Gossip is out on all your favorite podcast platforms.