No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen - Matt Gaetz and Kevin McCarthy screw themselves amid shutdown drama

Episode Date: October 1, 2023

Both Matt Gaetz and Kevin McCarthy screw themselves over with their mangled shutdown attempt. Brian interviews Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg about Trump visiting a NON-UNION shop during the union auto workers strike, the GOP’s dysfunction that brought us to the brink of a government shutdown, and the disaster that was the Biden impeachment inquiry hearing.Donate to the "Don't Be A Mitch" fund: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/dontbeamitchShop merch: https://briantylercohen.com/shopYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/briantylercohenTwitter: https://twitter.com/briantylercohenFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/briantylercohenInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/briantylercohenPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/briantylercohenNewsletter: https://www.briantylercohen.com/sign-upWritten by Brian Tyler CohenProduced by Sam GraberRecorded in Los Angeles, CASee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today we're going to talk about Matt Gates and Kevin McCarthy screwing themselves over with their mangled shutdown attempt, and I interview Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg about Trump visiting a non-union shop during the union auto worker strike, the GOP's dysfunction that almost led to a government shutdown, and the disaster that was the Biden impeachment inquiry hearing. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. So it's looking like we will very narrowly avoid a shutdown. As of this recording, the House did manage to pass a 45-day continuing.

resolution, which means we'll be right back here again in a month and a half, and then we can watch all over again as Republicans fail to accomplish even the most basic tasks in government. But it was the way that this went down that exposed both Kevin McCarthy and Matt Gates as losers here. So basically, the only way that the government could stay open is if McCarthy offered something that moderate Republicans could actually stomach, meaning not the deep draconian cuts that the initial Republican bill included. But Matt Gates came out. and said that if McCarthy offered a clean bill without those cuts, that he would offer a motion to vacate,

meaning he would move to oust him as speaker. Although, if the government shut down, that would also fall squarely on McCarthy's shoulders. So not great. Either way, if you're the weakest speaker in history, being led on a short leash by the worst people to ever work in government. Now, ultimately, McCarthy had no choice but to bring a clean bill to the floor,

extending the government's funding for 45 days. And what's craziest is that it was the Democrats who actually got them over the finish. finish line. The bill passed 335 to 91, with 90 Republicans voting no, while just one Democrat voted no, meaning yet again, it was the Democrats who kept the government open while saving the Republicans from themselves. But here's the thing. This is by no means a win for anyone on the right. McCarthy is going to be in this exact same position in 45 days, meaning he's still facing the imminent threat of a motion to vacate if Matt Gates doesn't bring it immediately. And as for

Matt Gates, McCarthy just called his bluff, meaning the onus is now on him to bring that motion to vacate to the floor. And if he doesn't succeed at ousting McCarthy as Speaker, which, let's be honest here, it isn't likely, then he's going to look like a fool. Here are a couple of far-right Republicans who are already starting to pour cold water on the Gates plan to oust McCarthy. Very disappointing. Spinning as usual up here. No border control. Very disappointing. But we'll live to fight another day. So if there's a vote to vacate, would you vote for it? Look, we've got our hands full. We'll see.

We'll see what he does. We'll see how he... I'm disappointed. I wish we'd fault. We just didn't fight. Look, this is a done deal. Okay? Let's move on and let's make sure that next year we talk about being fiscally conservative

so we could save our future and save our children and our children's children. Would you vote to vacate the chair? That's the conversation that I'm not even willing to have right now. Yeah, it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in Matt Gates's mutiny, does it? All of which is to say, neither one of these guys comes out. on top, Gates or McCarthy, the GOP remains steeped in division and dysfunction, and the sole focus right now is just what will happen next in this promised Republican civil war. Here's Lauren Bovert showing just how not into this news cycle she actually is.

We should have forced them to come to the negotiating table and come to conference and hash out our differences with these four appropriations bills before there was another payday that was it at risk of being missed. House the Speaker. That isn't what we're talking about right now. Well, I mean, Matt Gates has said that, he said if he puts this on the phone, he said if he relies on Democratic votes, he will no longer be speaker. Sure, but if he puts it on the floor. My focus is getting the federal government funded as we ought to with 12 individual spending bills like we promised everyone in January.

Unfortunately, now we're 45 days of the same bipartisan muscle memory of just a straight up and down vote and whatever's in it is good with us. And by the way, it ain't going to get easier for Republicans. So now they go from this terrible news cycle of their party's dysfunction, nearly leading to the government shutting down, to their parties infighting as a far-right extremist threatens to tank his own party speaker. I'm starting to think that maybe imbueing the world's biggest circus clowns with power might not be such a hot idea in retrospect. So just because Trump isn't in office right now doesn't mean that the dysfunction and the chaos

of the magoing of the GOP has gone away. If anything, this is what we can expect moving forward. They've not done a single thing to disabuse us of the notion that they are willing or capable of governing. So we will see more infighting. We'll see more extreme demands, more shutdown threats, more promises to oust their own speaker. All the while, it's the American people who suffer. It's the American people who don't have the benefit of competent representation. It's the American people who look like fools across the world because we have these clowns running the U.S. government.

A lot of us are making the case to put the adults in charge in 2024. across the government, but no one is making it better than the Republicans themselves. Next up is my interview with Pete Buttigieg. Now I've got the Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg. Thanks for coming back on. Thanks for having me on again. Of course. So this past week, President Biden made history by becoming the first sitting president

to stand in solidarity with striking auto workers. Meanwhile, we've got Donald Trump responding by visiting a non-union shop. What was your reaction to seeing Trump's visit? Well, I think that the union leadership was very clear, that they see through the politics of this, and they're focused on who's actually going to stand with them. Look, the Trump administration was not exactly pro-Labor or pro-union. Matter of fact, there was a UAW strike when President Trump was in office. He didn't go then.

I remember because I was campaigning, meeting with striking GM workers in 2019. The president did make history by going, and I think that's fitting because he is proud of being the most pro-worker, pro-union president ever, not just compared to the Trump administration, which was particularly anti-union, but really more than any other president of either party in modern times. And so it's always been a very deep part of his political identity. And I think very natural for President Biden to be there on the picket line, you know, not to insert himself into the finer points of the negotiations, but to make clear where this administration stands that this can be a win-win, the companies will be just fine in a scenario where they take good care of the workers.

was a lot of media coverage that equated it to, that equated Trump and Biden, with a number of them refusing to even acknowledge that Trump didn't even visit union workers. Does that kind of both sides' coverage worry you at all? You know, I think a lot of times you see that, and the best way to see through that or see around it is to listen to the actual voices of the folks who were there. The former president was really rejected by the UAW leadership, I think partly because they are not doing, sometimes there's an effort to put words in their mouths. The UAW is not saying that we can somehow trap everybody in the old technology. What they're saying is given that

things like EVs are going to be more and more part of the future, they better come with good paying jobs, just like the old technologies did when we were making those in places like South Bend in the 1960s and ever since. We've got to make sure that every evolution in technology is one that helps not hurts workers. And that's not something that the last administration showed a lot of commitment to, but our administration is very focused not just on making sure EVs happen. The reality is this is a technology that is already happening.

It's that they happen on American soil with American workers getting good American wages to support their families. Yeah, I did notice that the vast majority of the attacks, because they can't figure out where to land these attacks, is just blaming everything on EVs, that everything would be totally fine, if not for EVs, which the irony is that the move to renewables,

the move to electric vehicles, is inevitable anyway, but they just need to land on something to blame all of this on. Well, the other irony is the last administration really allowed China to get an edge when it came to EVs. They worked hard in China and put a lot of investment into developing these technologies. I don't really think it's because the Chinese Communist Party is deeply into green principles and all about cutting emissions. I think it's because they saw an advantage in terms of economic strategy. We see, similarly, there's an advantage in terms of U.S. economic strategy, and, yes, also an environmental advantage, to being the leaders in this technology.

And you see the factories going up, the jobs being created. And let's be very clear, the choice is not between EVs or somehow just being trapped in the old car technologies forever. The choice is between whether the EVs will be made in China or whether they'll be made in America. And by the way, it's not just EVs that China gains a competitive advantage in. It was solar panels. It was a lot of renewable technology because the U.S. refused to invest.

in that stuff because we were focused, especially during the Trump administration, in entrenching our alliance on fossil fuels and coal, these dying industries. And so that gave China the same competitive advantage that they're complaining about now and trying to blame on the White House here. So, you know, moving over to a different topic, we are recording this on Friday morning. As of now, the Republicans still haven't negotiated any type of a deal to keep the government open. What does it say about Republicans' ability to govern that we are heading for yet another shutdown. Well, a shutdown is unacceptable.

It reflects a basic inability for congressional Republicans to do their job. And one friendly amendment I would make to your remark that they haven't managed to come up with a deal is in a certain sense they did earlier this year, right? There was a deal that Speaker McCarthy and the president agreed on was supposed to prevent all of this from even being an issue by the time we got to the fall.

And yet here we are unable to deliver on the deal that he made and talking about walking it back. And it's not just the shutdown, which of course would be terrible service members wouldn't get paid, air traffic controllers wouldn't get paid, and TSA officers, I don't know anybody who thinks that's a good idea. We would have to shut down things like fixing the computer systems that created so many problems at the FAA earlier this year. A lot of that work would stop, even physical work, over at Dallas Love Field. We're investing in a new instrument landing system. The goal is to get it done by Thanksgiving when there's going to be a lot of travel. We will be unlikely to be able to make that goal if we have to halt work because of the shutdown. But it's not just the shutdown. It's what they're trying to get through the shutdown.

Remember, the shutdown is a hostage tactic in order to get extreme cuts through Congress. The last continuing resolution they put on the floor, or they put out there for discussion from House Republicans, 8% cuts. What that means in practice is it'll cut into our ability to improve the FAA. It'll even cut railroad inspections. We're talking about some of the very same Republican congressmen who couldn't wait to get in front of a camera in the wake of the East Palestine derailment, are now saying that they want to force budget cuts, it would mean less inspection of railroads to keep them safe.

It's completely upside down. And the idea of using a shutdown to try to get those cuts, the American people would reject, is just that much more troubling. And of course, let's not pretend that they wouldn't turn around and blame you if any of that stuff was ever halted. If anything regarding transportation was ever halted. Oh, that's the irony of all this. These are the exact same people who try to make a partisan issue. If there's, let's say, a computer problem at the FAA, now they're going to literally

block us from fixing the computers. Yeah, yeah. Goes to show exactly how much they cared about that stuff when it actually was going down, that now they're willing to do it themselves. You know, Republicans have been in the House majority for every government shutdown for the last 30 years. Literally, there hasn't been a single shutdown in three decades while Democrats held the House. What's your message to Americans who might think that there is an equivalency in how Democrats and Republicans have historically exercised power? Yeah, one very clear pattern through history and into recent memory is that, you know, Democratic elected officials are not about shutting down the government. We're about making the government work for working Americans.

That's what we come to work every day doing. And by the way, most of the people who are affected by this aren't Democrats or Republicans. At least it's not how they think of their jobs. You know, the 55,000 people who work at the U.S. DOT, other than a handful of us who are political appointees, their career folks who have been here through Democrats and Republicans, they just, They tough it out and they deserve better. I'm thinking about people like the team that's working on the airline rules that's going to help require that you get paid if an airline sticks you with an unreasonably long delay and it's their fault.

The people who are developing that work are hardworking public servants who wouldn't be able to carry on that work in the event of a shutdown. So this shouldn't be partisan but it is a fringe group of House Republicans that are forcing this and if they get their way on a shutdown, their way on a shutdown, it wouldn't be the first time. Can I just have your thoughts on a Nancy Pelosi-led house versus a Kevin McCarthy-led house?

Let me say this. Under Speaker Pelosi, we had one of the most productive legislative sessions in American history. Think about it. You had the infrastructure package that went through. You had legislation that improved health care for Americans. You had monumental economic packages that were needed to lift the economy from being flat on its back,

which it was. because of COVID when President Biden took office. You look at the achievements in recent years, the climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act. I mean, any one of those on its own would be a major accomplishment. You add them up together, and it's hard to find a two-year period where Congress got more done.

Then you get to this Congress. And I've seen some things happen on the Senate side on a bipartisan basis. I've even seen some work happen on the House side in a bipartisan basis. But when it comes time to actually beat the buzzer, and do something that, again, is one of the most basic functions

of the United States Congress, which is to operate and support the government. Sometimes I watch what they're doing and I just wonder if they understand, especially these French Republicans who seem busier launching impeachment hearings over, they don't even know what, than, I don't know, helping us do railway safety legislation.

I watched this and I wonder, do they understand that this is the real thing? It's not practice, it's not a show, it's not a simulation. This is not some high school model Congress. This is the actual Congress, the only one we've got in the United States of America, that is writing actual laws that the rest of us have to live by. And they've just got to treat the process with more seriousness than they have. While Republicans haven't been especially interested in keeping the government running,

they have spent their time, and you just alluded to this, in holding hearings regarding a Biden impeachment inquiry. And obviously, this inquiry is moving forward, despite there literally being no evidence to support it. What was your response to this development for the unilateral declaration of an impeachment inquiry and to the first hearing? I came to the office yesterday.

Like I do most days if I'm not, other days I'm out on the road, but I came to the office and we were working on issues related to improving American transportation. We're talking about improving airline passenger experiences and advancing railway safety. And then you look up at the TV and you see this hearing where people, again, with actual responsibility, a very big responsibility

who could be helping us get those things done, could be helping us deliver projects, could be helping us support airline passengers, you name it. They're in this room doing this hearing on, it's not even clear what. It's not like they've even come up with a charge. They just seem to think that if they keep inquiring long enough, maybe they'll find something. And it is such, for, Especially for members of the Republican House who often talk about, sometimes with what seems like sincere discussed about the idea of any way resources ever being wasted by the government. This whole thing is a massive waste of government resources. By the way, a shutdown would be too, right?

There are hours and hours and billions at the end of the day of dollars spent in just dealing with a shutdown, preparing for a shutdown. through a shutdown, some of which will never get back. The taxpayer will never get back. It is just lighting money on fire, the exact thing that fiscally conservative House Republicans claim to be against. Did it strike you as bizarre that their star witness

in all of this, or one of their star witnesses, and I use that term very generously, that was Jonathan Turley, that he would come forward and say that even he doesn't think there's a basis for impeachment? Fox's Judge Janine came forward after that and was like, yeah, of course the witness didn't give them anything, them anything. You don't want to show your cards at the beginning. So she's suggesting that this is all part of their plan. So do you do you buy that this is all that this is all just 4D chess by

Republicans and that their witnesses actually undermining their own impeachment effort is all going according to plan for the GOP? I think it's it's a hammer in search of an ale. And the sad thing is that hammer has other things that we needed to do. The tools of the legislature, the tools of the United States Congress are needed in order to keep Americans safe, in order to keep our government functioning, in order to help us with colossal challenges, real ones that are actually on our plate, not just the challenges of preserving our democracy, which the president spoke elegantly to this week, but the challenges of confronting the emboldened competition from China, the challenges of dealing with things like artificial intelligence, and if they're spinning their wheels, just

having, I guess, as many hearings as they think it'll take to finally come up with something to invent an impeachment case around. It just shows that the priorities could not be more removed from the kinds of things that we're working on. I started my week in Nebraska working on a short line railroad. We're bringing them $15 million to help make it safer for a railroad that's helping agricultural products move around the state and creating jobs in that region. Next day I was in Denver.

We were on the tarmac at Denver International Airport, which is one of the world's busiest. We're funding a new taxiway. And the way the taxiway works is it eliminates one place. where airplanes could come dangerously close to each other. And we're doing new LED lights that are going to be safer for those aircraft to operate. These are the kinds of things we're working on. They're the kinds of things Congress should be working on.

And it's really costly to the American people in very real ways if they keep spending their energy on this kind of nonsense instead. It's like a fountain of drama, a fire hose of drama coming out of House Republicans when we're just trying to get work done. And by the way, just as a quick aside, I do think it's so telling how so often when we hear about these infrastructure projects, for example, they always happen in red states. They're always benefiting the same people who are working their hardest on their end

to just grind everything to a halt. So you guys, the supposed enemies of all of these Republicans, are out there making life better for Republican states and Republican citizens. And meanwhile, the representatives who are elected by those people are doing everything they can to hurt their own constituents because they think it will benefit them politically. But I just want to stay on the impeachment inquiry effort for just a moment. The reason that they're doing all of this is obviously to settle the score, that Trump was impeached twice, and so they think that Biden needs to be impeached too. Meanwhile, Trump has been busy issuing death threats to former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Millie.

As a veteran, what was your reaction to that? Well, it really was an attack on the entire military. And, you know, look, this is not somebody who has ever shown a huge amount of respect for the military, whether it's going back to when it was his turn to serve and he invented a disability in order to get out of serving, let's probably some working class kid go in his place, or ever since. It doesn't have a lot of respect for war heroes, for generals, for disabled veterans. And I've got to tell you, you know, I'm not obviously in national security most of the time, but there have been occasions because of the work we do in transportation.

I've found myself in a meeting or a situation with General Millie, talk about a soldier's soldier, somebody who is as matter of fact, as serious, as insightful, and as committed as anybody you will ever meet to keeping Americans safe and to doing right by the service members who were under his command. It's just the contrast couldn't be more stark, and I'm really thankful for the general service. And, you know, one principle we used to hold pretty sacred in this country is that whatever your policy arguments are, you wouldn't take it out on the military. But this goes way above and beyond that.

This isn't just a policy disagreement. This is just flat out disrespect and even intimations of political violence directed at somebody who has put his life on the line and showing huge disrespect for the military in which he serves. Perfectly put. You know, Republicans just held their second debate. I guess, well, I don't think I'm going to get a straight answer to this one, but who do you think won? You know, while I'm in this capacity, for better, for worse, I can't talk about campaign stuff much.

What I'll say is that, you know, we're really proud of the work that we've done, and we're ready to get out there and make the case for why that work is worthy and why we're continuing that work every single day across the administration and here in this department. And, you know, it's, well, I'm just going to leave it at that. I do think to build on your exact point is that while these people are busy grinding the government to a halt and making sure that nothing works and turning everything into a circus and holding these impeachment inquiries with zero predicate to do so, that they are at the same time vying for a promotion. And yet, meanwhile, we've got this administration who just in a couple of years was able to pass the American Rescue Plan, the Inflation Reduction Act, the infrastructure bill, the gun safety legislation, the PACT Act, the Chips Act, and on and on.

And so just that is the great irony that they think that in the midst of failing in real time, they are also telling America that what they deserve is a promotion, not just to hold the House, but also the Senate and the highest office in the land. So that's just the great irony of the Republican Party, the cognitive dissonance at play. I mean, I think in any job, you recommend yourself by trying to do a good job at that job. And unfortunately, you do have some people who get into office who seem to be so against the very concept of government working for people that they go out there to prove that it's impossible. We're trying to prove something very different, which is that you can use the tools of government. You can take the resources of government.

And whether you're fixing a bridge or requiring insulin to be $35 or less, you can do things that are going to make people better off every day. That's how we operate. That's what we're about. And that's what I wish was more of a bipartisan focus in this town. Now, on a more hopeful note, a more substantive note, the White House announced the creation of a climate core. This was actually a big part of your campaign heading into 2020. What does it mean to see this become a reality? I'm really excited about this.

You know, as you mentioned, this was a concept that I really worked to promote back when I was a candidate. And the president's executive order is going to make it possible for 20,000 people to have a chance to build skills, to work on things like green energy projects, conservation, and resilience, that are also skills we're just going to need more of in the American workforce. I mean, we know what we're looking at, both on the threat side in terms of the resilience we're going to need for more and more extreme weather events, and on the opportunity side, because we see all of these jobs being created, but in relatively new fields like green energy. And so to see this work being done is, I think, a great development in the concept of service.

You know, it draws on the DNA of the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Project Administration, things that my grandfather participated in when he was a young man under President Roosevelt's New Deal. And it's a great tradition, I think, to revive because America has always been at its best when we rally around a national project, a national challenge. You know, getting through the Depression was an example of that. So was getting through World War II. But here, without a depression and without a war, but with a very real threat in terms of climate change, we can do it once more. We can summon the American people to be part of something bigger than ourselves, and while doing it, empower the young people who will be part of this American Climate Corps, to get skills, get training, get income, get connections, get pathways into jobs that will pay well for the rest of their lives.

What would you like to see next on climate, whether in this administration that you're a part of or the next one, the next, what I assume will be the next Democratic administration, because the Climate Corps was a big, bold idea. So what's another big bold idea that you hope becomes a reality one day? Well, so many new things are becoming possible, but a big part of what I'm focused on now is just delivering the things that we set into motion, right? So before we get on to more of the wonderful new ideas that are emerging, I'm mindful that even though we passed the Inflation Reduction Act, and that's the most significant climate legislation from any country anywhere in the world ever, even though we got the infrastructure package done and it's the biggest infrastructure investment since Eisenhower here in the U.S., That doesn't mean it all happens on its own.

We've got to actually roll up our sleeves through the unglamorous work of making it happen. And whether we're talking about getting the charging network that America is going to need for the cars in the future or the grid to power that charging network or making sure that we're building the kinds of trains and transit that people are going to need to safely get around or just fixing roads and bridges.

But in ways that are smarter than the way we used to do it from a climate perspective, all of that adds up in a big way. And it allows America to lead. You know, this idea of, I see, I saw it again when I was testifying in Congress last week, this impulse among some who, if they're not willing to be seen denying climate change altogether anymore, they turn to the idea that we shouldn't do anything about it because China's not doing anything about it. I just think, you know, since when are we emulating China or waiting for China to move

before we do the right thing as a country? Let's do the right thing right here in the U.S. and then challenge the rest of the world to follow us instead of the other way around. That's what excites me. And that's where the momentum is right now, I think, on American. climate action. Perfectly put, we'll leave it there. You spoke about doing the unglamorous work, and that's what you've been doing for years now. So thank you for all the work you're doing and for taking the time to speak with me today. That's a pleasure. Thanks for having me on.

Thanks again to Secretary Pete. All right, that's it for this episode. Talk to you next week. You've been listening to No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen, produced by Sam Graber, music by Wellesie, interviews captured and edited for YouTube and Facebook by Nicholas Nicotera, and recorded in Los Angeles, California. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe on your preferred podcast app. Feel free to leave a five-star rating and a review, and check out Brian Tyler Cohen.com for links to all of my other channels.