Senator Ruben Gallego on Signalgate, Veteran Protections & Winning Male Voters

Summary

Podcast Summary: Senator Ruben Gallego on Signalgate, Veteran Protections & Winning Male Voters

Podcast Information:

• Title: Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway and Jessica Tarlov
• Host/Author: Vox Media Podcast Network
• Episode: Senator Ruben Gallego on Signalgate, Veteran Protections & Winning Male Voters
• Release Date: March 26, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of Raging Moderates, host Jessica Tarlov engages in a compelling conversation with Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego. Despite his relatively recent entry into the Senate, Gallego has quickly become a vocal advocate for veterans, rural communities, and centrist Democratic values. The discussion delves into the recent Signalgate scandal, the senator's initiatives to protect veterans, and strategies to reconnect with male voters who feel overlooked by the Democratic Party.

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Signalgate Controversy

Signalgate has been a focal point of the episode, with Senator Gallego expressing deep concern over the misuse of the Signal chat by high-ranking officials. The scandal involves Secretary of Defense Mark Hegseth sharing classified information inappropriately, potentially jeopardizing national security.

• Gallego's Critique:
  "He does not have the maturity, he does not have the experience, nor do I think does he have the confidence of the military at this point." [04:20]

Gallego emphasizes the gravity of the situation, highlighting the risks posed by unauthorized information sharing:

• "This is just not... dangerous and it's just unbecoming of someone who is in that leadership position." [04:20]

He calls for accountability, asserting that Secretary Hegseth "has to resign" due to his irresponsible actions that compromised military operations and endanger lives.

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Impact on Rural Arizona and Government Programs

Senator Gallego sheds light on the tangible effects of federal policy changes on rural Arizona, particularly focusing on Medicaid cuts and Social Security challenges exacerbated by corporate interventions.

• Medicaid Cuts:
  In places like Cochise County, 33% of the population relies on Medicaid, and half of the local hospitals' funding stems from it. Gallego warns that cutting Medicaid would result in hospital closures and limited access to healthcare.

• Social Security Challenges:
  Gallego criticizes Elon Musk’s administration for making Social Security enrollment cumbersome, especially for rural residents who may face logistical barriers:

  "You have to show up to prove who you are in order to get your Social Security, this is a huge burden on people from rural Arizona." [08:40]

He underscores the dependency of 50% of Arizonans on Social Security, highlighting the disproportionate impact of policy changes on vulnerable populations.

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Election Insights and Voter Sentiments

Gallego provides an insightful analysis of the shifting political landscape, particularly among young and Latino voters who have distanced themselves from the Democratic Party.

• Engaging with Male Voters:
  Gallego emphasizes the importance of addressing men's wellbeing and societal pressures:

  "We should just try talking to them... I do believe that there is a problem within men in this country." [23:51]

• Youth and Latino Voters:
  He attributes the loss of support from young people and Latino communities to Democrats' failure to resonate with their economic and social challenges:

  "Why were young people moving away from us? Two reasons... they're graduating into no houses, no steady job, and debt." [23:51]

Gallego advocates for authentic engagement and culturally relevant campaign strategies to reclaim these voter demographics.

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Intraparty Dynamics and Strategies

The conversation transitions to internal Democratic Party dynamics, with Gallego advocating for unity and strategic focus to regain voter trust.

• Avoiding Intraparty Conflict:
  Gallego criticizes the current state of Democratic infighting, suggesting it hampers the party's ability to present a cohesive front:

  "These rich people should not be cutting poor people programs to make themselves richer. That's exactly what we're saying now." [29:18]

• Championing Moderate Policies:
  He stresses the need for the party to prioritize widely supported issues over niche social policy debates:

  "We should focus on stabilizing our democracy, stopping these massive tax cuts. And once we do that, then we could get back into the nitty gritty of some of these social policy issues." [34:06]

Gallego calls for healthy discussions within the party to align on core values and strategies, avoiding the pitfalls of internal discord.

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Putting Veterans First Act

A significant portion of the discussion centers on Gallego's Putting Veterans First Act, aimed at restoring and enhancing support for veterans within federal employment.

• Restoring VA Cuts:
  The bill seeks to reverse cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs, ensuring that veterans receive the support they need:

  "It restores all the cuts at the VA and it rehires every veteran across the federal government." [31:27]

• Ensuring Dignity and Stability:
  Gallego emphasizes the mental health and economic stability benefits of the act:

  "Coming back from the war, the guys that did the best with... were the ones that were able to get good, meaningful jobs." [31:27]

He argues that unstable employment post-service leads to increased mental health issues, urging the government to provide veterans with the support necessary to reintegrate successfully into civilian life.

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Conclusion: Prioritizing Issues

In wrapping up the conversation, Gallego reflects on the importance of focusing on critical issues that have broad public support rather than getting entangled in less impactful social debates.

• Raging vs. Calming Down:
  Gallego identifies veterans' treatment as a primary concern deserving of passionate advocacy, while suggesting that social policy wars can be secondary:

  "We should be raging about veterans... What we shouldn't be raging about are some of these things that end up being kind of social policy wars." [34:06]

• Strategic Focus for Democrats:
  He argues that Democrats need to concentrate on stabilizing democracy and addressing economic concerns to build a stronger foundation for future policy initiatives.

  "We should focus on stabilizing our democracy, stopping these massive tax cuts... it's important that we focus on stabilizing our democracy." [34:06]

Gallego's strategic vision emphasizes practical, widely supported policies to enhance the party's appeal and effectiveness in addressing the nation's pressing issues.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• "He does not have the maturity, he does not have the experience, nor do I think does he have the confidence of the military at this point."
  — Ruben Gallego [04:20]

• "You have to show up to prove who you are in order to get your Social Security, this is a huge burden on people from rural Arizona."
  — Ruben Gallego [08:40]

• "We should just try talking to them... I do believe that there is a problem within men in this country."
  — Ruben Gallego [23:51]

• "These rich people should not be cutting poor people programs to make themselves richer. That's exactly what we're saying now."
  — Ruben Gallego [29:18]

• "It restores all the cuts at the VA and it rehires every veteran across the federal government."
  — Ruben Gallego [31:27]

• "We should be raging about veterans... What we shouldn't be raging about are some of these things that end up being kind of social policy wars."
  — Ruben Gallego [34:06]

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Final Thoughts

Senator Ruben Gallego provides a nuanced perspective on the challenges facing both his constituents in Arizona and the broader Democratic Party. By addressing critical issues like Signalgate and veterans' protections, while also advocating for strategic voter engagement and intraparty unity, Gallego positions himself as a pivotal voice for moderate Democrats seeking to navigate the complexities of contemporary American politics.

Transcript

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[Peter Kafka]

Hey there. This is Peter Kafka, the host of Channels, a show about tech and media and what happens when they collide. And this week I'm talking to PJ Vogt, who used to have a big podcast with a big audience and lots of resources, and then he didn't, so he had to figure out how to start again.

[PJ Vogt]

I have a lot more appreciation for people who run businesses. I have spent, you know, years being the, like, artist baby side of it. And you're just like, oh, it is its own art. It is its own creativity. It's really hard.

[Peter Kafka]

That's this week on Channels from the Vox Media Podcast network.

[Jessica Tarlov]

Welcome to Raging Moderates. I'm Jessica Tarlov, and I'm thrilled to have Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego with us. Senator Gallego hasn't been in the Senate long, but is already making a splash. He's been holding town halls across rural Arizona, where he's been talking about the potential cuts to Medicaid and veterans benefits and what that could mean for everyday folks. On top of that, he's pushing forward with the Putting Veterans First Act, a bill that aims to help veterans get back into their federal jobs if they lose them. Senator Gallego, it's great to have you on the show.

[Ruben Gallego]

Thanks for having me.

[Jessica Tarlov]

It's a big pleasure of mine. I've been waiting a long time in life to be able to talk to you, and I feel like it's the perfect moment on the news of the day front to talk about the Jeffrey Goldberg Atlantic piece where the editor in chief was invited into the war planning signal chat. I've seen some of the comments you've posted on X even saying that Secretary Hegseth needs to resign over this. Can you talk a bit more about how you're feeling and what you're thinking about it?

[Ruben Gallego]

Yeah, I mean, when I first saw this, I was like, wtf? It's just like one of those things that you never can imagine actually being real. It's something that came out of Veep. The problem is this is real serious shit. This is not. We should be very concerned for For a couple reasons. Number one, it wasn't just like a signal chat. It was a signal chat of basically our whole national security team. We had people that were overseas commenting on this signal chat. And for us that have been involved, I was the past chairman of Intel Special Operations. We know how our enemies have some very good signal gathering capability, and we don't know how far it went and how far it goes when it comes to this group. And the fact is, like, they put men and women in danger. Obviously, when you're about to launch a war, you are moving assets around, you're moving ships around, you're moving men and women around, you're exposing, make them more vulnerable. And for us that have been in the military, you put the whole operation in danger or compromised it. Because the Houthis may not have the best signal gathering intelligence, but the Iranians certainly do. You know, Russia certainly does. And sometimes we'll feed information to the Houthis and to the Iranians. And if they had, you know, gotten a heads up, they may have actually moved some of our targets or their targets that we wanted to target. All because of a couple reasons of, number one, simple things that I learned in the Marines called operational security that Pete Hexseth should have known. And number two, they're treating this as a game, right? This is war fighting. People are going to die. War, whether it's the enemies, hopefully, but sometimes even us. And you can't be treating this as if it's just another lackadaisical communication and taking it seriously and making sure you're doing everything from one end to the other like a professional is what matters. And this is why Pete Hecht said at this point has to resign. The fact that he was sharing exact weaponry that he's going to use and targets on a signal chat, it wasn't to clearly be, you know, to clearly show what he needs to be, what needs to be done, or whether targeted. It needs to be approval. It was to show off. And that showing off compromised our security. He does not have the maturity, he does not have the experience, nor do I think does he have the confidence of the military at this point.

[Jessica Tarlov]

That's interesting. So you're focusing on Secretary Hegseth, and it looks like he was the one who was sharing the classified information, but National Security Advisor Mike Waltz was the one, or at least his team, whoever set up the chat that invited in Jeffrey Goldberg. President Trump has expressed confidence in Waltz. I know him personally, and he was one of the big relief points for me in the Trump Administration, especially when it comes to national security and foreign policy. Do you think there will be any real repercussions? You think Waltz is safe in all of this or.

[Ruben Gallego]

I don't know. Look, I know Mike fairly well. I consider him a friend. But he did a very dumb ass thing and someone within his. There's just, I mean if I, if I had done this, Mike would be all over my ass too. Like he needs to step up and either hold somebody accountable or this is where, you know, the leadership, this is Pete should be taking the fall. Because while while Mike may have done the mistake of adding this person and I don't know why he did or his staff did, the real leadership fault is and the real grave sin here is Secretary of Defense sharing targeting locations and the armaments we're going to use. That is just ridiculous. It is dangerous and it's just unbecoming of someone who. Of that leadership position.

[Jessica Tarlov]

Yeah, I think a lot about what would be happening in normal times. So if this were any other administration and the expectation would be that there would be congressional hearings and inquiries, there would be an FBI investigation, there would be a DOJ inquiry, maybe there would be impeachment proceedings. Do you have any expectation that any of that might actually happen?

[Ruben Gallego]

I doubt it. Look, this is not the courageous time for Republicans. Let's just be clear. There are some that are very concerned. You're going to hear a lot of concerning, you know, Susan Collins on the beat. Susan Collins will show. Yeah, she's concerned again. But at the end of the day, they are still afraid of Donald Trump, which scares me because what they should be afraid of is the national security of our armed services, that this is a very serious, serious breach. We should have hearings. Maybe the hearings will, you know, give us a better or enlighten more how this happened so we could fix it in the future. Maybe it'll actually pinpoint, not necessarily that it was Secretary of Defense, it could be somebody else within his chain of command. But the fact that we're going to just. The Republicans are just going to drag, you know, just put this under the rug and hope that everyone forgets about it is what really scares all us. What else are they doing on a signal chat? I mean the fact that they're even doing this on a signal chat in itself is illegal. But the fact that there's one of the branches of government plus their allies in the House and the Senate are going to do everything they can really to memory hold this. And the people that end up losing are our members of the armed services. Cuz they end up being weaker because of these actions.

[Jessica Tarlov]

Yeah, I think that's a really important point because anyone who's been on signal knows that people go there for private conversations, but also so that the messages can be disappeared. Right. That they're 24 hours a week, however much it is. So you think they've been in office for two months. A lot has already gone on. We've been negotiating between Ukraine and Russia, we've been negotiating between Hamas and Israel. So what is being hidden from?

[Ruben Gallego]

We've been talking to Musk, has been talking to everybody and trying to shut down every government agency, including Social Security. So what is happening? There's a reason why this all has a standard operating procedure, whether it's on the national security side or on the government side. Because this is the way you avoid corruption, this is how, this is how you avoid government abuse. And anything that these Republicans are going to do now, we have to be very aware and very cognizant that another government can do just as likely four years from now. And we don't want to weaken our, you know, the years and years of laws that we passed to bring more transparency because transparency means you can stop abuse, you can stop fraud. And when you don't do that, this is, when you don't do that, this is how you find yourself in situations that occurred Under Secretary of Defense.

[Jessica Tarlov]

Well, you already said a buzzword of the moment, Social Security. And I wanted to talk to you about the town halls that you've been holding because I imagine that the theme has been protecting Americans and also the corruption we're seeing in the administration. So could you talk a bit about what it's like on the ground across Arizona in these town halls?

[Ruben Gallego]

Well, I've been particularly going out to rural Arizona, Red Arizona some people will call it, because I want to remind people that when we talk about government programs, the areas that get hurt the most are actually rural America. You know, where I was, for example, down in Cochise County. 33% of the population of Cochise county is on Medicaid. Right. And when you. And 50% of like the hospitals there, 50% of their funds come from Medicaid. So when you severely cut Medicaid, you're cutting some of the few hospital systems in rural Arizona. People in Arizona are going to have to travel hours and hours sometimes to get basic routine because you know, that doctor that was relying on Medicaid as part of its mix is probably not going to take as many patients now or, or it's just going to close up and leave. Social Security is another good example, you know, for, for Arizona. You know, there are parts of Arizona, in order for you to get to quote unquote, the big city, it will be a six hour drive. And so when you have assholes like Elon Musk saying like you have to show up to prove who you are in order to get your Social Security, this is a huge burden on people from rural Arizona. First of all, do they have the vehicles? Second, or do you even have the gas and do they have the time? Six hour drive is a long drive, people. And maybe in the Northeast don't think about that. But for six hours in Arizona that is a, you're going through a lot of empty, empty terrain and good luck. If you don't make your appointment or something else happens, you have to come back. That is what Elon Musk is and his little doji boys are trying to do. They don't understand government. They don't understand real people. They're a bunch of Silicon Valley elites that will never, ever, ever rely on Social Security and probably will never even have to, you know, even try to enroll in it. But this is what's going to happen to 50% of Arizonans because we are 50% of Arizonans are dependent on Social Security as part of their income. And you know, they're hurt, they're scared and they have no one answering to them. So the fact that I'm out there talking to them, the reason they're just happy to hear from me and I'm not mostly most of them are Republicans, to be honest. They're just happy that someone's talking to them because their Republican members of Congress aren't talking to them. I also did a town hall just for veterans in Sierra Vista, which is a very Republican city. It's a, it's a military town. And my, my, my town hall was just packed with people from, you know, coming all the way from the Vietnam War to OIF or Operation Racket Freedom, which I was of part of, and Operation Enduring Freedom, which is Afghanistan. And people are worried. They're talking about their benefits being cut. They're talking about the longer wait times people are worried about their jobs. These are veterans that have, that left service of the country in the military and wanted to serve the country more in government. And they're being treated like total assholes. And that's the thing that really annoys me and I think it should annoy everybody. The thing that they're doing is not just slashing they're treating these people like subhuman. These Americans, these veterans, they're not just saying like, hey, we're going to cut your job at the end of the year. We should give, give you some time for you to go find your, find another job. Here's some severance. They're saying this is your last paycheck. Oh, by the way, I don't care if you're pregnant. This has happened. You're off government health care next week or your insurance plan next week. I don't care if you're going through some type of chemo, some type of therapy right now. You're not getting insurance for the rest of the year. You're going to get it for whatever is left of the month. This is what Elon Musk is doing to thousands and thousands of American veterans who have done nothing wrong except try to serve their country. And the fact that Republicans who claim to be the party of veterans now are just bowing to this rich, out of touch elite just so he could keep giving them their donations should tell you where the real heart of Republicans is and is right now.

[Jessica Tarlov]

Do you find that there's a fissure or at least a separation in the way that the folks that you're talking to feel about Donald Trump versus Elon Musk? Cuz must definitely seems from the data to be the vulnerability in the administration versus the president himself.

[Ruben Gallego]

I think now there is a joining of the issues and mostly people are saying still giving Donald Trump credit, say, but it's not good credit. Like mostly I'm hearing, well, he looks weak. He's only doing this for Elon's money. Why is he helping Elon get more tax cuts now? They're putting it together. They're still giving him the benefit of the doubt in some regards. But the fact is it looks like they're going to put them together and, and I would say probably at the voting booth, probably punish them both. And it's not like Elon Musk is going to go anywhere. It's not like the things that he's cutting are going anywhere. You know, you're cutting people out of social whether you like it or not, making it more difficult for people to enroll. You're making it difficult for people to get on the phone to actually talk to somebody when your Social Security is cut. You know, the fact that the president went at the State of the Union and lied about Social Security and thinking that Social Security recipients can't detect that lie, they did. Democrats promise, Independents saw that it was a lie and they know that he knows that he was lying, and they're not willing to accept it for a long time. Let's be clear. There's a lot of voters that accepted Donald Trump's lies, knowing that they were lies, knowing and knowing that he knew they were lies. But they were all in kind of alignment. But the fact that they went after Social Security the way he did at the State of the Union, I think that was very jarring to them, and they're gonna hit a big surprise. And it's not just that. You know your Social Security, it's not just your government workers. Look, I'm hearing this from firefighters, police officers. These are people that are young and largely Republican. And when I'm out there talking, you know, whether I'm in the community or just going anywhere, they'll tell me like they're worried about their country. And these are guys that will vote in their guys. They will vote Republican. They have voted Republican. They didn't even vote for me. And now they're telling me that they're worried what's happening. So there. There is a. Something coming up. There is a wave coming up, and I think people aren't. Aren't seeing it, and people. And I think Republican Party is just going to be in denial all the way to the end.

[Unknown Speaker]

The Trump administration is defying a federal judge who's demanding details about a flight to El Salvador. It carried almost 200 men who the administration says are gang members and who were flown from US Soil after the judge said don't. President Trump and El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele posted video of the shackled men being pulled from the plane by guards in riot gear and transported in white buses to prison. The official White House Twitter account also reposted a remix of the video set to Semisonic's closing time.

[PJ Vogt]

You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.

[Unknown Speaker]

The song is about joy and possibilities and hope, and they have missed the point entirely. Lest we all. Let's focus up. The administration acknowledges that many of these men don't have criminal records in the US And. And some of their family members say they're not in gangs at all. You can get today explained every weekday afternoon.

[Jessica Tarlov]

Do you feel like the Democrats are meeting the moment? So you're a special test case for our party. You won in a very tough environment for Democrats. Trump won by five points. In Arizona, you were able to win, and a few other swing state Senate Democrats were able to pull it off. And you're quite a moderate. Person. You certainly push back when it needs to be. Like on immigration, for instance, with the sending people who shouldn't be in an El Salvadorian prison camp down there. You're gonna say something about that. But do you feel like Chuck Schumer is up to the task at this particular moment? And how are you balancing the fact that our party seems to want moderate policies, but also a fighter?

[Ruben Gallego]

Yeah, well, I don't think Chuck was up to the task when it came to the cr, just to be clear. And I made it very clear to him. And I also made it clear going forward what I expect from him and from leadership. I think it was a horrible strategic mistake of how he handled it. He says that that was the best he knew he was running on the best information. Okay, that's fine, but that's not going to be acceptable going forward. But I think it's also incumbent upon all Democrats to step up. And I think, you know, if you're a moderate to conservative Democrat, get out there and talk. Because what we're talking about are fairly moderate and conservative things, right? Preserving Social Security, something Americans paid for for their whole lives, making sure you're able to access it because people are depending it as part of their retirement mix. You know, making sure that we're not cutting Medicaid to give, you know, extremely rich people a tax cut is not just moderate. It's fairly popular across the board. Serving, you know, protecting veterans at the VA as well as government employees across the board is something that I think is moderate. And I think what people want is someone out there to fight for these positions, not necessarily on the liberal to conservative spectrum. Even when it comes to immigration. I keep having this problem with my colleagues. They think it's an either or. That we have to either be fully for a very liberal immigration and border policy, or we have to be for the draconian policies that this president's using. No, you can be in the middle on this, too. You can say, you know what? I want bad people that have entered this country illegally to be deported. Right? I want people that have criminal records to be deported. Heck, I want people that have criminal records that are really dangerous to be deported to other countries prisons. But I want due process to make sure they are who they are actually saying they are. Right? Something we expect any good country to do. While at the same time, I can want immigration reform at the same time, I can want dreamers to become US Citizens. And I want people that have been in this country for years. For example, there's a couple that just got deported to Columbia, back to Colombia, had been in this country for 30 years, no criminal record. They've been trying to get themselves right with the government. They have three children, they have grandchildren, they had a house, everything else like that. Why did we deport these people? Why? No reason. They're not a threat to society. All it is because Donald Trump and Elon Musk and some of these Republicans, all they really care about is hitting these quotas. And so by whatever means, they're going to go and grab people however they can. And us as Democrats need to really have a good answer to that. And the answer isn't going to be stop. The answer shouldn't be go. The answer should be like, let's work together on doing something that actually is going to bring us security, but also align with our values as a great country.

[Jessica Tarlov]

Do you think there is any possibility of that happening? I can't see a gang of eight or a gang of six coming out.

[Ruben Gallego]

Of this, not, not the way that it is right now. I mean, honestly, I thought the CR was going to give us a good example to do that. But when we lost our leverage on that, I think that that went out the window. I think at some point it will come back because the Trump deportation plan is really expensive and it's not actually that effective. You know, what you're seeing is 200 people put it, being put on a plane to El Salvador. That's, you know, to distract you from the fact that the deportations aren't going well. And I'm not saying that just because I have statistics. Like, I actually have friends. One of the benefits of growing up in Arizona and growing up in a working class area is like, I have friends that are border patrol and ICE agents, and they're telling me that they're having a tough time picking up people because a lot of people are hiding. You know, a lot of people have moved. A lot of the information you're using is old. And some of the people they are trying to pick up, once they get to them, they do investigation and find out that most of them have already started the process or in the process of becoming. Becoming legalized, and it makes it even more difficult. And so you're going to see a lot of these, you know, kind of, you know, flashes to distract from the fact that this has been an overall failure when it comes to deportations. There are still individual gross examples that we're hearing and seeing, like, for example, that, you know, the stylist that was sent to the, to El Salvador These Colombians I was just telling you about. But on a whole, they have failed so far on mass deportation, and so they're gonna try to make it up by whatever means possible. Now, what does that look like? It could just be even worse, you know, doing worksite raids, things of that nature, which will eventually hurt our economy and hurt our communities.

[Jessica Tarlov]

Yeah, it does seem like that shift has happened faster than I even expected on how people feel about the economy. So on immigration, that's the only area that Trump has a positive rating on, about 55% approval. His ratings on handling, cost of L inflation, all the things that he told us he was going to fix are tanking quickly.

[Ruben Gallego]

And he doesn't talk about them anymore. That's the thing. It's like he talks about immigration and think about the reason he's tanking is because he doesn't talk about it anymore, because he knows he. Whatever he needs to do to fix that, he doesn't want to do it right. That's the problem. And I think people are giving him way too much grace. You can fix some of these problems. You can fix, help fix the price of eggs by making sure that chickens are properly vaccinated against avian flu. You can bring down the costs of living by not engaging in these tariff wars that are going to hurt working class Americans. You can increase the wages by not cutting some of the regulations that we're increasing wages, especially for federal contract employees. All these things he can do but he doesn't want to do because it'll piss off someone along in his base. So instead he's just going to focus on the things that he knows he can do, maybe fairly well when it comes to immigration. But he's no longer talking about health care anything. He's talking about cutting health care. You know, this is why this is his prime focus, because it's the only thing that keeps this coalition together. And in the end, it screws Americans.

[Jessica Tarlov]

Yeah. And healthcare is also feels like the only bright spot, at least in terms of what Democrats can be talking about, because it's something central to the way everyone lives. Pretty high approval for Obamacare. Certainly people like their Medicare and their Medicaid. And we're the only ones that seem at this moment like we actually give a fuck about what's going on in people's everyday lives. Which leads me to data. David Shore's big data dump last week. I know. Well, we're only two months into the administration. Isn't it crazy? It feels like it's been forever.

[Ruben Gallego]

We had to Go there.

[Jessica Tarlov]

Yeah. But I wanted to get your take on what happened during the election. Kind of now, a few months in, and we have a lot more clarity, and we know about the groups that have really separated themselves from the Democratic Party. Young voters, Latino voters, young people in general. I should know. Just not just men, but some women as well. Most conservative generation. And what's your kind of postmortem in general, and how do you think we can win some of those voters back, specifically men, Which I know has been a big focus for you?

[Ruben Gallego]

Well, we should just try talking to them, number one. There's just a lot of Democrats don't even try talking to men. We don't try to talk to them as an interest group. And I think, you know, this sounds weird when it comes from Democrats, but I do believe that there is a problem within men in this country. And the fact is, like, we don't even talk about it. We don't talk about the fact that they have the lowest college attainment rate ever, that they're living at home with their parents, that they're not buying homes, they're not having success, and women are having success. Not that they have, you know, have it easy either. But we don't even talk about it. And also, like, some of it is. Is, you know, people want to say, like, oh, you got to bro it up. That's not the case at all. I don't think I bro it up at all. But I do talk about understanding the pressure of being a father, the fear you have about not being able to provide for your son and daughter. I have two kids now. I have another one coming. And the fact that we should respect fathers and mothers. And I think for some reason, as a party, if we felt it was cheapish to do that, I was talking to another congressman from a swing district, and I won't be able to do it this year because my son is going to be born right near Father's Day. But I wanted to do Father's Day appreciation breakfast. And I was talking to this swing congressman. He said he's never done something like that. I'm like, yeah, but I bet you've done Mother's Day appreciation breakfast. He's like, I have. I'm like, why don't you do a Father's Day appreciation breakfast? Because I'm afraid I'm gonna get yelled at. Well, we are so focused on trying to not piss off somebody within our own camp that we're losing the opportunity to talk to these other people and bring them in and then lastly, when the data tells you there's a problem, believe that there's a problem. And the reason that we outperformed not just Harris, but all the other senators, mind you, Arizona has a 300,000 more voter registration. Republicans are 300,000 more Republicans than Democrats in Arizona. I don't have the numbers that Nevada has. I don't have the numbers that Michigan has. I wish I had those numbers. But we had to accept reality. When we heard that people were still pissed off about the economy, we couldn't lie to ourselves and say, like, well, you know, inflation is going down and wages are going up. That's not what was happening. You heard it at the doors. You heard it, you know, talking to voters. I heard it in the grocery store and I heard it from, you know, Latino men who really, really felt that they had been abandoned. And these are men that believe they could work their way out of any problem. They'll add an extra job, they'll cut here, cut there. And the Democrats just never wanted to really talk to them in a way that would help them kind of at least assuage of fears because we wanted to believe the lie that was not actually in front of us. And look, when it comes to young people, like, why were young people moving away from us? Two reasons. Number one, they're, they're graduating into a world that, that they think they didn't deserve. Their parents had houses, their parents had steady jobs. They were graduating into no houses, no steady job, and debt. And the Democratic answer wasn't much a great answer to that. We also are stuck on this idea that we are culturally cool people, but we really are culturally cool because people that are aligned with us are culturally cool. But our candidates aren't necessarily that way. And we are still trying to run campaigns as if they were 20 years ago. We, you know, I, I ran against Kerry Lake. Kerry Lake ran a way better campaign when it, when it came to going on podcasts and going on all these kind of niche media that, that I think even Shore or one of these other political nerds talked about a couple weeks ago. Right. The thing that we did is that we didn't really have access to those types of podcasts. We were very insistent on creating a certain type of attitude and vibe that we knew would go viral. It wasn't necessarily policy heavy or focused, but enough that we knew that it would attract the environments that we wanted to. Right. So for Latino men, we emphasize sports, we emphasize talking at, you know, town halls with, with working class men. And I would go to you know, morning shift changes and. And hand out morning breakfast burritos to the men that were leaving their shift changes. You know, we had massive, you know, boxing watch parties, soccer parties, all these things that helped kind of create this understanding. Hey, this guy actually understands us, right? With young people, we did the same thing. We're very much focused on trying to get our message out to them and not just on, you know, through social media or through paid social media. So, you know, we have to run the campaigns to win. Right now we're running campaigns to not piss off our own base, not piss off staff sometimes, which is even crazier to me. Not piss off interest groups that are either going to have to vote for us anyway or we're never going to vote for us anyway. And, and, you know, not running. The campaigns that actually are. Are. Are designed to win right now. They're designed to basically, you know, create plug and play that goes back from all the way to the 1980s. And it's not working. It just isn't.

[Jessica Tarlov]

What you're describing inherently is a willingness to have intraparty fighting and criticism and that that's healthy and that everyone is running their individual races. I think that's also very much the vibe that AOC and Bernie are embodying on this fighting oligarchy tour. Do you think that's the way forward for us to be able to win back people's trust and hopefully more seats?

[Ruben Gallego]

Look, I do think it's okay for us to have healthy discussions who we are as a party. At the core, though, people that are 95% aligned with you are 95% your ally. They're not 5% your enemy, or they're. Or they're not 95% your enemy, as some of these groups think. Right. You know, I think about this all day because, like, people are pissed at me for here and there and saying, you know, Kerry Lake should have just won. Like, okay, so would Kerry Lake be trying to defend Medicaid? Kerry Lake be pro labor right now, you know, I sign up to the. I sign up to the pro act. Would Kerry Lake be willing to pass immigration reform? Would Carrie Lake be willing. You know, it would be as pro choice as I am. No, but because of one or two votes or because I talk to Republicans, all of a sudden, I am the devil again. We're 95% allied. Let's work on that. And guess What? For that 5%, let's keep talking. People change over time. Politics change over time. But this has gotten to the point where within this Big tent that people just basically are stabbing each other when we can all be working together. What AOC and Bernie are doing is good. It's good that they're out there talking and getting people excited. It's good that we have moderate members that are doing the same thing. It's good that we're all trying to fight for the same thing. By the end, we're all saying the same thing, too. We're all in alignment. You know, these rich people should not be cutting poor people programs to make themselves richer. That's exactly what we're saying now. They have different words. I have different words. That's fine. But that's a true tense. Not the kind of like, you know, infighting that I've seen in the last couple years.

[Jessica Tarlov]

I totally agree with you. There is a very simple theme on this, and it can be focused on the other side without going after one another in these ugly primaries that they're threatening.

[Ruben Gallego]

It's way easier to fight. It's very easier for us to fight when we're fighting each other, when we're actually in power right now. What are we fighting over? None of us are in power.

[Jessica Tarlov]

No. As the mother of a toddler, sometimes it really feels like the same vibes as when I pick her up at the community center. I wanted to give you the opportunity to talk about your Putting Veterans first bill.

[Ruben Gallego]

Yeah, I mean, look, it's a very simple bill. It restores all the cuts at the VA and it rehires every veteran across the federal government. It does provide for an avenue for them to be fired, but it's an avenue that you have to prove that they are negligent, that they are not good workers, that their job is no longer needed. Right? And it's just simple. Right? We're trying to give these men and women dignity, stability, and it really does matter. I'm gonna tell you, like, you know, coming back from the war, the guys that did the best with. With. I mean, and all of us have it to some level or not with PTSD and being able to adjust the fastest back in society were the ones who were able to get good, meaningful jobs. And the fact that they're just arbitrarily firing these veterans, you're going to have increases in suicide, you're gonna have increases and a lot of other seriously mentally ill. Pardon me. Whether it's the need for more therapy or anything else like that. Just because you are traumatizing people that have been using or have been at work and been using it as a stable part of their lives. And it's just unnecessary. It is absolutely unnecessary. How much is this going to save the federal government? Almost negligible, especially when you're only trying to cut it to give tax cuts to these dudes that don't need it. And the fact that you're handing over this power to a bunch of out of touch elitists that probably do not know any veterans, don't have any veterans in their family whatsoever. And they're just kicking them out without any thought, any respect, any dignity. It's embarrassing. You know, veterans are gonna be talking about this for the rest of their lives. You know, we've gotten a lot of us got screwed already. We got screwed coming back. We got screwed going to the Iraq war. We got screwed coming back from the Iraq war. Some of us that are finally putting our lives together are getting screwed again by that state government just to appease this guy who has zero understanding and is probably one of the most least patriotic people I've ever met. Yeah.

[Jessica Tarlov]

And it also connects on a very important level to what you were talking about with men and talking about men's wellbeing and that the core of that is being able to have a good, stable job that you can provide for.

[Ruben Gallego]

Your family and gives, provide your family, provide security for your family and also gives you meaning in life and in your community.

[Jessica Tarlov]

Yeah. I wanted to ask you. So at the end of these interviews, I always ask, what's one thing that makes you rage and one thing that you think that we should all calm down about? Oh man, I know. The rage one always gets people. They're like, I have 50 things to talk about.

[Ruben Gallego]

No, actually I'm overall fairly like mod person just because, like, you know, I grew up in a household of, of mean and four women, Latino women, and then went to the Marines. So I'm, I'm actually way more even keel than I think that I, than I should be. Right. I do think we need to be raging about veterans, to be honest. Like this is going to have massive, massive problems, generational problems that we're creating. You are going to take people that have adjusted themselves after some very hard trauma and throwing them back out, some of these people back into the streets. And when you, when, you know, I was just at a veterans homeless shelter when, when, when they get into the streets, it's almost harder to get them out. And it enrages me because it's not necessary. Hell, you could do all of this and just exempt veterans, but because there's some level of I don't know, malevolence or just disrespect from this administration to veterans, they don't care. They just absolutely don't care. So we should be raging about that. What? We shouldn't be raging about some of these things that end up being kind of social policy wars. Not that they're not important, but they're not the most important right now. And I think it's important that we focus on stabilizing our democracy, stopping these massive tax cuts. And once we do that, then we could get back into the nitty gritty of some of these social policy issues. But right now, a lot of times, even if we want to do this, the American public's not with us. And as I try to tell some of my colleagues, there's some hills we just can't die on, because if we die on those hills, we can't fight for anything else. And that's where I would leave that.

[Jessica Tarlov]

At least I agree with you. If it's an 8020 issue and we're on the wrong side of it, maybe we should move on.

[Ruben Gallego]

Exactamente.

[Jessica Tarlov]

Anyway, thank you so much for your time. It was great to talk with you.

[Ruben Gallego]

Adios much.

[Jessica Tarlov]

Adios.