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The MeidasTouch Podcast
New York Congressman Tom Suozzi who FLIPPED Trump District in NY goes ON OFFENSE
00:17:06
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- [00:00]
Host
I'm joined by Congressman Tom Suozzi from actually my hometown in Long Island, New York. Congressman, welcome. I just want to touch upon some of the breaking news of the day. Donald Trump announcing that he's apparently having his own make believe department called the Doge Department. And he's appointing Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to this make believe department. I mean, you know, if this was a fictional movie, you know, there may be some humor in that, but this is serious business. Cabinet departments, the appointment process, what's going on here, because I think we do need some, some seriousness on the Hill.
- [00:39]
Congressman Tom Suozzi
You know, I think it was, it's a favor for Elon Musk. Doge, Doge is also dogecoin, which Elon Musk was very big with that. So he's just trying to do another favor to Elon Musk. I don't think it's part of the government. I think it's an outside agency that they're going to be pushing for, as they say, governmental efficiency. But we, let's, let's see what happens. You know, I think that if you look at the appointments that Trump is making, he's supporting his loyal supporters and he's going out of his way to show loyalty to them. We've noticed with President Trump that doesn't always last for that long. You never know what's going to happen with him. But let's work ahead and let's try and get things done and let's try and address the issues that people in our country face.
- [01:27]
Host
One of the issues that Americans are concerned about too is we'll talk about domestic in a moment, but just what's going, going on internationally. Currently the defense secretary is Lloyd Austin, former four star general, someone who was imminently qualified. We heard yesterday that Donald Trump intended to appoint Peter Heth, who's a Fox News host. I mean, he did serve in the country, so you have to respect his service, of course. But someone who has no government experience, I've heard lots of people say, you know, who the fill in the blank is this guy. What's, what's your thought about that? I mean, it's, it's as serious of a position as there is to give someone without experience the nuclear codes.
- [02:13]
Congressman Tom Suozzi
You know, the president's going to have to go through. This is why the Senate confirmation process is actually so very important. And you know, the president talking about his recess appointments and he doesn't want to go through. Senate confirmation is a little bit of a scary thing because you need to go through that Senate confirmation process so you can vet the people that come forward for these jobs. You know, maybe Mr. Hegseth will be a great defense secretary, and he's Trump's guy. And Trump wants to do his own thing, and he wants somebody from outside of the existing hierarchy. It has to be a civilian position. But that's why you have Senate confirmations, so that the president, under a checks and balances program, will have to pass muster that the people that he's appointing to these all important positions are, in fact, capable of doing the job.
- [03:04]
Host
You sit on the Homeland Security Committee. Donald Trump's made some announcements about appointments going forward there. Kristi Noem, governor of South Dakota, become Homeland Security director. She was famous for killing her dog Cricket and moderating a town hall with Donald Trump where they just started dancing and instead of having any questions answered. Also, Donald Trump says that Tom Homan is going to be his border czar, one of the authors of Project 2025. I'll dig into this a little more, but judging by your face, you have something you want to say about those appointments or have some reaction generally to that?
- [03:43]
Congressman Tom Suozzi
No, it's. It's a cheap shot, the whole shooting the dog thing. I know Christie. No, she used to be a member of Congress, and she's a. She's a serious person. But the reality of the situation is that we have to secure the border. We have to fix the broken asylum system, and we have to treat people like human beings in the process. We have people that have been here for decades, not 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, that are Dreamers and TPS recipients. And we've got a big problem with farm workers. Our farmers throughout the country are facing devastating times right now. We've got to bring in healthcare workers. We need to address what's called the Afghan Readjustment Act. So we need to fix the border. The border is a very real issue. It's something I talked about during my campaign in the special election back in February, as well as in this campaign. And we need to actually stop the finger pointing and stop the attacking and actually address this issue. And the president's threat of deportations, which is not attractive to most businesses, which is not attractive to most law enforcement officials, which is not attractive to most religious groups. They don't want to see these deportations. It'll cause chaos. And we should use the fear of his mass roundups and deportations as a vehicle to force a deal for the Congress to finally do its job after 30 years, which is to try and do something Bipartisan, that will secure the border, that will fix the broken asylum system, and we'll treat people like human beings and legalize, modernize some of our legal immigration system. This is real life. I mean, this is. Now, people think of elections kind of like as entertainment these days, but these are serious life and death issues. And there are going to be a lot of families affected by this threat of deportation, and it's going to affect a lot of businesses, and it's going to affect the economy. We do have to secure the border. We do have to fix this problem. But Congress has not addressed it for 30 years, and now it's time they do.
- [05:45]
Host
Well, you know, there was an attempt to address it, though, right, with the bipartisan border deal. Trump had told famously, you know, Congress, hey, you know, kill the bill, you know, or, you know, or insinuated that he didn't want that bill being passed.
- [06:00]
Congressman Tom Suozzi
No, kill the bill. I don't want to give Biden a win, and I want to. I want to run on the chaos. I mean, and that's exactly what he did.
- [06:06]
Host
And that was a bill that was. The lead negotiator was James Langford, Republican from Oklahoma, who kind of put the language together. Do you think, though, I mean, that that bill now goes on the table, back on the table, or do you think that, you know, with the appointment of Tom Homan, look, everybody agrees, criminals, terrorists, deport them, put, lock them up, every.
- [06:27]
Congressman Tom Suozzi
It's not.
- [06:28]
Host
That's not controversial. To your point, though, you know, people who have been in this country for a long time, Matt, bloody mass deportations, this idea that we're going to be seeing ICE knocking on people's doors, rounding people up and throwing them in cages, has a lot of people very scared. Even people who voted for Trump who are saying, wait a minute, I'm a family person. That wasn't referring to my tia or tio or my abuelo and abuelo, but based on Homan's language, at least, it seems that it is talking about their abuelo and abuela, NTO and tl, whether or not that can be stopped. But that seems to be Homan's plan.
- [07:07]
Congressman Tom Suozzi
There are millions and millions of mixed families in our country where you have somebody who is documented, you have somebody else who's undocumented, you have somebody else who's a dreamer, you have somebody else who's a TPS recipient. And this is going to cause chaos, and it will cause chaos for the companies that they work for right now. It will cause chaos for their families, it will cause Chaos for law enforcement, because people are going to be so afraid of all law enforcement, not just the ICE officials, but local officials as well. And that breeds chaos and gangs, quite frankly. But Congress has failed to do its job for so many years. I mean, one of the things that I've talked about is that I was one of the first people to say clearly my election was in February, my special election. I talked a tremendous amount about the bipartisan Senate bill that was endorsed by the Wall Street Journal, endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce, was endorsed by the president of the Border Patrol union, who happens to be a big pro Trump guy at the time. And Trump killed the deal. But Democrats never talked about the border before. And many consultants said to me, tom, why are you talking about the border? That's a Republican issue. No, it's not. It's an American issue. And we have to stop letting the Republicans attack us on issues. And then we don't even respond and we leave this vacuum. And when the vacuum exists, people's heads are filled with the Republican attack. It's a scent. And we've got to wake up that there are some tough topics that our base may not necessarily be happy with, but we have to be willing to talk about it. One thing about Trump is we've attacked him over the years over and over again, but he responds to every attack. He doesn't let anything go unanswered. And if you look at effective elected officials and politicians throughout the years, you cannot let them define you with an attack and hope it goes away. You have to be willing to respond to the attack and try and give a way forward based upon the issue that is confronting you.
- [09:10]
Host
You talked a lot about some things that Democrats need to do in terms of messaging there. You know, obviously a very sober mood on Capitol Hill right now as people are returning, as Democrats are returning. I mean, look, I'll remind our viewers, not just that I lived in the congressional district that you're the member of Congress for, for all of my childhood, but that was also a seat that was held right before you, that you held it first. Then George Santos had that seat, if everybody remembers, 3rd congressional district of New York. And then you took that over in the special election, ran against a kind of Trump supporting Republican who ran that playbook. You ran, you know, a different, you know, I think a strategy that appealed to a Long island that was moving more in a different direction. Maybe. Can you speak more broadly the lessons that you've learned and kind of as, as the opposition now, what do you think that looks like, what are the lessons that we've learned from all of this?
- [10:08]
Congressman Tom Suozzi
Well, let me just first point out that Donald Trump won my congressional district by 19,000 votes. I ended up winning my district by 9,000 votes. So I ran about six points ahead of Vice President Harris in my district. That was not an easy thing to overcome. But the people in my district know me and they know that I'm going to fight for them. I'm not going to fight for the party per se. I'm going to fight for the people. And I talked about how I reject extremism and we need to reject extremism on both sides. The crazy right wing nuts that we hear out there as well as the left. We need to reject the extremes. We need to listen to the people and try and get things done. We need to use common sense and we need to be willing to work across party lines to get things done. And now's the time to do that. You know, we have the talk out there right now. Is it going to there going to be a resistance or is there going to be an effort to get things done? Working with the Republicans as they take over the presidency, the Senate, and more than likely the House? We hope that's not true, but it's looking that way. So what are we going to do? Well, we need to do both. When something crazy is being proposed, something that's outlandish is being proposed, we need to fight and resist when something addresses the concerns that the American people have. We need to find common ground and get things done. This is not just about the election in 2026 or the election in 2028. This is about right now. This is about getting things done to make people's lives better. Now there will be a lot of people that say, well, the Republicans didn't do that. They didn't help Biden get things done. They didn't work across party lines when they controlled the House. Well, that's true. It was the least productive Congress in the history of our country, at least in modern times. Not since Harry Truman talked about the do nothing Congress. We're not, we're now the do nothing est Congress. But just because that's what happened, you know, doesn't mean that that's what we should do. It's not just about winning. It's about trying to move our country forward and solving problems and make people's lives better. It's not worth it to be in this crazy business just for the ego or just for the competition of, you know, I'm right, you're wrong. I'm going to win, you're going to lose. It's only worth it if you're going to actually make the world a better place to live in. So we need to call out the Republicans when they do crazy stuff, when they're extreme, but we need to work together with them when we can find ways forward to make our country a better place to live in.
- [12:45]
Host
Congressman Tom Suozzi, thanks for joining us. We hope to have you back soon and we'll be following everything you're doing on the Hill. And thanks for joining us.
- [12:54]
Congressman Tom Suozzi
Yeah, thank you for what you do and I hope you'll have me on again sometime. Thanks.
- [12:58]
Host
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