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- [00:00]
Narrator
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- [00:54]
Podcaster
It seems like we constantly see men folding like cheap suit suits in the eyes of Donald Trump's authoritarian tendencies. But women seem to be speaking out and fighting for their rights because we inherently know that they are coming for us. And so today I am very proud to announce that we are going to have a conversation with Congresswoman Mikey Sherrill from New Jersey. Mikey, how are you today?
- [01:18]
Mikey Sherrill
I'm great. Thanks so much for having me.
- [01:21]
Podcaster
Yeah. So, you know, you have done some town halls and received standing ovations. Have you done any town halls outside of your district?
- [01:30]
Mikey Sherrill
We've done a bunch of forums outside of the district. The, the town hall was specifically in the district speaking about a lot of what's going on in Washington.
- [01:41]
Podcaster
Yeah, I think it's really interesting when you have, because I live in Oklahoma, in a red state and of course the people in our districts are too cowardice to have town halls here. And I think it's really interesting when I see your colleagues go to very red districts and you see the outrage. And I believe that the anti maga movement is far larger than the pro maga movement. What's your take on that?
- [02:08]
Mikey Sherrill
You know, I think it is large and growing. We are just seeing, you know, a complete disgust for so much of what's going on. And not just disgust, but fear. Right. Because it's really upending the economy. We're trying to drive down prices here in New Jersey. We have a housing crisis, we have a utility crisis, we have health care crisis with all of the costs going. And as we're coming up with this pathway for how we're going to drive down these costs, Washington's attacking us and making it difficult. I just had one developer say to me, you know, I've stopped all projects because my H Vac guys said costs are going up 30 to 40%. So you know, I think people are really seeing direct impacts on the way they're living their life. And in a lot of cases, you feel like the federal government should just run the government. And now we see the federal government really upending people's day to day lives and at great cost to them.
- [03:06]
Podcaster
Let me ask you this. I have a feeling that our economy is going to continue to get worse regardless of what Trump does. And here's why. Corrupt governments do not have stable economies. We elected, not you and me, not tens of millions of other Americans, but a convicted felon was elected to be President of the United States. Since then, he has engaged in a lot of quid pro quos, a lot of just illegal, corrupt shit. And you see the global markets responding to this. They're pulling out of investing in America. You see, like, I'm an interior designer when I'm not a podcaster. I see price hikes all over. Just, just like on the offense, they're playing on the offense. Like we have to raise our prices right now because we don't know where this is heading with these tariffs. How realistic is it that if, let's say a bunch of hedge fund guys and some of these oligarchs said, hey, get your shit together, you're going to destabilize the American economy, that when you have a convicted felon who was convicted of fraud, I mean, filed bankruptcy six times, that our economy is ever going to be as strong and stable as it was prior to him coming back to office in the second term.
- [04:22]
Mikey Sherrill
Well, I think that is what's being missed by the Trump administration, because as you're saying, we're seeing these upheavals in everything. You're talking about your interior design business. Our local coffee shop, Java Love, just put out that, that the tariffs are going to cause their prices to go up because they import coffee. So all of this is really just upending people's day to day and it's not going to be fixed. If Trump says, okay, well, then I'll stop doing that. Okay, I'm going to put this tariff on, but I might stop this one or I, I'll stop this one for now, but then I might start it again. Nobody knows is headed. I don't even think people in the Trump administration have any sort of plan here. So what happens is everybody is staying on the sidelines. You know, nobody's starting new projects, new businesses. People are deciding to just wait and see where this goes because it's just difficult. You can't plan in this environment. And so when, when you hear the economist saying, I think a recession is coming, that's why. Because everybody is just pulling back and our economy is going to take a huge hit. And it doesn't matter if he does these carve outs for, oh, I'm going to carve out electronics now. I'm going to carve out this now. Oh, I'm going to stop this tariff here because people are upset. That's not going to fix the problem. But, you know, you just see this, this is something I remember from the first Trump administration. You see in a lot of places, he causes this huge disaster and then he pulls back from the disaster and people say, oh, he's brilliant. You know, he's fixing the disaster. But I have to tell you what's different this time is the scope of the problems he is causing in the economy, in people's lives, the fear that he's engendering in people as he's picking people up off the street without charges and deporting them to Salvadorian prisons. This is different. And this is long lasting. And the economic impacts are going to be long lasting and the direct impacts on people is going to be really felt by all of the individuals. It's already being felt. So there's no easy fix to this right now.
- [06:33]
Podcaster
And don't you think the. You talk about the rate at which he's moving and students of history will know that this is what authoritarians do. They move quickly and they break things quickly. And I've been a little bit surprised by, you know, Trump and Trump 1.0. His ego was so attached to, to the stock market. It was very obvious. And even through the campaign, it was like, the stock market's going to crash if Kamala wins. He doesn't seem to care at all anymore. And there was a report that came up from one of his senior advisors over all the tariff stuff. And this is direct, quote, the advisor said, he loves this shit. So he's loving the dismantling of everything that we hold dear. And Americans love their economy. I mean, that's one thing that can unite the left and the right. We like economic stability. We like a strong dollar. But now he, he doesn't seem to care about that. The people surrounding him don't seem to care about that. And you have all of these sycophants that, you know, I don't know if you've seen where they're wearing now, like the FCC chair. He's wearing a gold bust of Trump on his lapel. And this like, idol worship of this man is just so bizarre as an American to see people value this man who lies about how much he weighs, gets a doctor to lie and say he weighs 224 pounds, which everybody knows is a lie, that they value him over their own freedom. And I don't know how we get to those people, but I do know that the people that set out this last race and the millions of Americans that never vote should be our target. So what is your message? Because I feel like the clock is closing very quickly on us having any form of a midterm election. I mean, what we saw yesterday in the Oval was horrible. What is your message to these people that sit on the sidelines? Not maga, I don't think we can talk to them. But the people who sit out who are apolitical. What do you have to tell them?
- [08:41]
Mikey Sherrill
Yeah. You know, I grew up during the Cold War. In my senior year, the Berlin Wall fell. I then was in the Navy for almost 10 years. I was a helicopter pilot and a Russian policy officer. So I can tell you, having served around the world and seeing countries like this where they put up huge statues to the dictator in power, where, you know, an offhand comment against what's going on in leadership can result in you being disappeared, I am telling you right now that this is incredibly dangerous. And for those people sitting on the sidelines that think, oh, he's just deporting green card holders, or, oh, it's just at this university, it's not me, or it doesn't impact my family, you know, nobody is safe in this environment because that's just where it starts. And it very quickly devolves into speaking out against this administration and being punished for that. And we're hearing, you know, as he was talking about the man he deported to the Salvadoran prison and as he's yucking it up with the Salvadoran dictator about how they're not going to bring him back despite a court order to do so. He was then suggesting that next are going to be people from this country that were born here. I think he called them homegrowns. So nobody is safe in this environment. He's enriching himself at every turn. That's what's breathtaking about this, is as he's destroying the most vaunted economy that's ever existed in the history of this earth. He is destroying this economy while enriching himself and his friends. So Erik Princess saying he's going to help him build these prisons in El Salvador. This is really dangerous, dangerous ground that we're on. And that's why, you know, as we look at this, that's why I'm running for governor, quite frankly. I think Democratic governors have to stand in the breach here. I think New Jersey as the very first state in the nation that can weigh in on this in our elections. Ballots are going out in four days here in New Jersey. We can weigh in on this as the first in the nation state to do so. I think this becomes incredibly critical as we build that firewall against what's going on in Washington. How we chart a different path forward for rights and freedoms here, how we chart a different path forward for our economy in conjunction with other Democratic states. We have to stand in the breach right now in a very new and different way.
- [11:18]
Podcaster
Let me ask you this regarding your coworkers in Congress, the people on the right, and I'm not talking about like the Marjorie Taylor Greene's and the Lauren Boeberts that are, you know, full blown cult, but the people who know better surrounding you. Is there a Rubicon or is there a line that you think some of them would say, okay, this is too far, let's draft articles of impeachment, or are they just so obsequious to this administration that there's no hope of stopping the illegal actions that this administration is implementing?
- [11:55]
Mikey Sherrill
You know, we've seen it just winnow down over the years again and again and again until there are now just very few people, even people that I've worked with in the past that, you know, I know where they come from. I know what they've said in the past. I know they have historically been thoughtful people. There seems to now be no line for most of them, parroting things coming out of the White House that are untrue, standing against just the things that I know their constituents want, whether it's Medicaid or Social Security or the Department of Education. I mean, really just doing whatever it is this president wants them to do. I would have thought with what is going on now that these lines would have been crossed for many of my colleagues. But I am not seeing signs of that. So I don't know what it's going to take at this point.
- [12:49]
Podcaster
Yeah, it's really, it's terrifying. And I, I can tell our listeners and our viewers that when you have a Republican governor, you said you're running as a Democratic governor in New Jersey. And I want to tell everybody listening and watching this, I live in a red state with a Republican governor with a Republican super majority. They have the Ten Commandments in classrooms, the Separation of church and state is blurred. Women that need health care are having to sneak off to other to get it. We're ranked 49th in education. Some polls, it's 50th, they gaslight the governor gaslights constantly and says we're a top 10 state. We're not, we're a bottom 10 state. And it is so important, I think, governor's offices, because while people on the coast were not fearful of Trump, those of us that don't consume right wing media that live already lived in this Magus style Christian nationalist takeover, see the dangers of it and the indoctrination of citizens. And it's, it's just, it's really terrifying place for women, for people of color. Racism is alive and well and emboldened in the south and in Bible, Bible Belt states. And you know, we have interviewed a lot of Democratic governors and I think that they are on the front lines of protecting their citizens because right now, you know, two years ago we had a crazy state legislature, but we had a Joe Biden presidency. So we were protected against the worst impulses of the MAGA regime. Now that's gone. So can you please speak to what you plan to do for the people of New Jersey to fight against Trump and what the states can do to fight against this style of authoritarian wannabe dictators that now they kind of are, since they're disobeying the Supreme Court.
- [14:45]
Mikey Sherrill
Yeah. And I thank you so much for saying that because I have served all over this nation. All over the world, but all over this nation. And I tell people here in New Jersey, you don't know white Christian nationalism.
- [14:58]
Podcaster
That's right.
- [15:00]
Mikey Sherrill
It's just not in the day to day experience as it was when I served in places like Pensacola, Florida or Corpus Christi, Texas. It is not well understood here. And I think it's so dangerous, especially to women. I had a helicopter instructor years ago tell me that he was going to have a really hard time as my helicopter instructor because he was Christian. And I looked at him, you know, I was raised Catholic. I'm like, what? And he just said, you know, in his religion, men are in charge. And you see that, you see that in Mike Johnson, who wouldn't allow pregnant women who just had babies to proxy vote because even though he seems to want women to just go have all these babies, he doesn't want them to come back to work. Right. You know, there is a very specific role for women and that's why it's so important in New Jersey that we have Democratic leadership, because Quite frankly, Jack Cittarelli, who's the presumed Republican nominee, as I say, broke land speed records to get to Bedminster to kiss the ring of Trump, to visit with Elon Musk to do exactly what it was going to take to win their approval and not much more, has said nothing about what we see going on in this country, attacks on our economy, attacks on our rights and freedoms. But I'd also say, to your point, what are you going to do as a Democratic governor? We've got to do better. We have to deliver for people. It's not enough, as I say, to be anti Trump and pro abortion. That's a good start. But man, we have to deliver on the economy. We have to build houses here. We have to drive down costs. We have to make sure we're addressing our power needs of the future, investing in clean, cheap power. I tell people here in New Jersey, like, look, Texas is the leading solar state and they're not doing it because it's green, they're doing it because it's cheap. We have to do better as we work to drive down costs here and we have to address the health care system because it's just becoming too expensive for people to receive day to day health care. So this is what we're fighting for. We have to do better governing if we are truly going to provide a different pathway forward for people in this nation.
- [17:13]
Podcaster
Thank you for saying all of that. And I think it's so important, and I want to tell anybody in New Jersey that's listening to this, because this is the error that happened nationally. A lot of people voted for what they thought were their own personal economic interest. With Trump, what goes along with that is Christian nationalism, which takes away the rights of everyone and it inherently destabilizes the government because Christian nationalism is a form of corruption, complete corruption, and the dismantling of human rights that we value. And I want to add that I think along with all of the things that you're talking about that are important to do, I hope that Democrats start messaging that we can't see the rights of anyone, that none of us are free until all of us are free. And I'm an atheist in the buckle of the Bible Belt. And I feel like I have a moral obligation to vote for the most marginalized person in this state, not myself, not I'm a white privileged woman. It would be a very easy thing for me to always vote for my own pocketbook. But I feel a moral calling to vote for the most marginalized people in this state. Sadly, the most religious people in the state don't share that same moral calling as I do. And I can tell everybody in New Jersey and on the coast who have 401ks and what have you, you have no idea the dangers of Christian nationalism and the rights that are taken away because they come for everybody. Christian nationalists come for everybody. And that's what's happening in this state. And it's so incredibly sad. Congresswoman, I love having you on. I think it's amazing that you're running for governor. I would love to have you back on as your race draws near to speak to the people of New Jersey that might be moderates about the dangers of Christian nationalism, because that's the one thing that I think a lot of people nationally don't get that comes along with this.
- [19:06]
Mikey Sherrill
I think you're exactly right. I have so enjoyed talking to you. For all of your listeners who are interested in the campaign, please go to mikeysharrill.com to find out more. And thank you again so much. I. I do appreciate so much what you're doing. Thanks again.
- [19:20]
Podcaster
Thank you. Have a great day at work. Thank you.
- [19:24]
Mikey Sherrill
Have a good one.