WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.680
Do you feel as if in the conference there is a renewed sense of urgency to give President

00:00:04.680 --> 00:00:08.440
Trump his cabinet that the American people voted for?

00:00:08.440 --> 00:00:13.040
And I know you were not in the Senate then, but at least based on your colleagues that

00:00:13.040 --> 00:00:18.560
word, do you think that we're in a more urgent place to move more rapidly than in January

00:00:18.560 --> 00:00:19.560
of 2017?

00:00:19.560 --> 00:00:22.320
I do, I do.

00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:26.840
I think that we were back there last week and as we got, it's the first time we've

00:00:26.840 --> 00:00:32.580
been there since the election and you do feel like there is a sense of urgency to move an

00:00:32.580 --> 00:00:39.720
agenda and that does mean cabinet picks forward quickly because look, we've got, you know,

00:00:39.720 --> 00:00:41.600
we got four years, but we may only have two years.

00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:44.920
You don't really know how this is going to work out, but we've got a moment in time

00:00:44.920 --> 00:00:51.240
here and I think Charlie, one of the important things about leadership is understanding the

00:00:51.240 --> 00:00:53.160
moment that you're in, right?

00:00:53.160 --> 00:00:57.080
And that, so if you take a step back and look at what happened and you guys did a lot of

00:00:57.080 --> 00:00:58.080
great work.

00:00:58.080 --> 00:01:01.720
I saw you in Arizona just a couple of days before the election of all the great work

00:01:01.720 --> 00:01:05.880
you were doing on the ground and so you think about that.

00:01:05.880 --> 00:01:10.760
President Trump, after the Democrats tried to bankrupt him, keep him off the ballot,

00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:17.680
throw him in jail, there were two assassination attempts, he delivered the biggest political

00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:20.840
comeback in American history and that's not an exaggeration.

00:01:20.840 --> 00:01:21.840
I mean, people-

00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:22.840
That's right.

00:01:22.840 --> 00:01:24.920
He was off and he was victorious.

00:01:24.920 --> 00:01:28.680
I'm glad that I was, I think I was either the first or the second Senator to endorse him.

00:01:28.680 --> 00:01:34.520
Tumorville and I argue about that from time to time, but anyway, I mean, he delivered,

00:01:34.520 --> 00:01:35.520
right?

00:01:35.520 --> 00:01:39.120
And what's more amazing is it's with a different coalition.

00:01:39.120 --> 00:01:42.960
Like I'm 49, like it's a different coalition than we had when I was growing up, which

00:01:42.960 --> 00:01:43.960
I think is a great thing.

00:01:43.960 --> 00:01:47.460
I grew up in a working class neighborhood, you know, my dad worked seven days a week

00:01:47.460 --> 00:01:48.960
in the midnight shift.

00:01:48.960 --> 00:01:50.360
Those are our voters now, right?

00:01:50.360 --> 00:01:53.440
They're low propensity voters sometimes, which I know you were doing a lot of work and others

00:01:53.440 --> 00:01:58.480
were to make sure they go vote, but we've got a multi-ethnic working class coalition now.

00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:02.480
We've got also, you have RFK Jr. and you got Tulsi Gabbard and you got all these other

00:02:02.480 --> 00:02:08.240
sort of disruptors and so you really had the dynamic, as I see it, was the disruptors

00:02:08.240 --> 00:02:10.800
versus the establishment, right?

00:02:10.800 --> 00:02:12.480
That's what people wanted.

00:02:12.480 --> 00:02:16.480
That's what they voted for and so we have a very unique opportunity, a once in

00:02:16.480 --> 00:02:21.800
a lifetime opportunity, as far as I'm concerned, to really take on permanent Washington.

00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:26.520
And so yes, there are things that we can do in the Congress to address those things structurally

00:02:26.520 --> 00:02:32.640
and we should, but you also need reformers inside the agencies to go do that and who share

00:02:32.640 --> 00:02:34.600
that vision that you trust as well.

00:02:34.600 --> 00:02:37.840
And to me, that's what these cabinet appointments are all about.

00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:42.200
And so when President Trump, who got a mandate sweeping the battleground states, winning

00:02:42.200 --> 00:02:45.080
the popular vote, and I'm not sure how many people actually saw that comment,

00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:50.040
if they're being honest, winning all of those things, he deserves the ability in my view

00:02:50.040 --> 00:02:54.360
to put the people that he trusts to go execute on this reform agenda.

00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:57.560
And so I do think there's momentum for that.

00:02:57.560 --> 00:03:01.680
My hope is that there are any concerns anybody actually has that they would try to address

00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:06.240
those because early, because in my view, I'm going to support them all, but we

00:03:06.240 --> 00:03:10.920
got to get to a place when we get there January 5th, we got to be ready to rock

00:03:10.920 --> 00:03:17.160
and roll with hearings and get in and move these nominees forward for approval.