No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen - Republicans embrace last-ditch dangerous tactic ahead of midterms

Episode Date: October 30, 2022

Political violence surges as Republicans embrace it. Brian interviews Michigan state Senator and rising Democratic star Mallory McMorrow about her efforts to flip the Michigan state Senate to the Democrats and a ballot proposal that’s driving a ton of enthusiasm for the left. The Democratic congressman for one of the closest races in the country, Mike Levin, joins to discuss what the Inflation Reduction Act actually does for climate, his response to Shell raking in $9.5 billion in profits as the sponsor of legislation that would prevent oil companies from price gouging, and what’s next on the climate front if Democrats keep control of the House. Support Mike Levin: https://www.mikelevin.org/Support Mallory McMorrow: https://www.mcmorrowformichigan.com/Shop 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 the surge in political violence as the election approaches and the GOP's embrace of it. I interviewed Michigan State Senator and rising Democratic star Mallory McMorrow about her efforts to flip the Michigan State Senate to the Democrats and a ballot proposal in Michigan that's driving a ton of enthusiasm for the left. I'm also joined by Democratic Congressman for one of the closest races in the country, Mike Levin, where we discuss what the Inflation Reduction Act actually does for climate, his response to Shell raking in $9.5 billion in profits as the sponsor of legislation that would

prevent oil companies from price gouging, and what's next on the climate front if Democrats keep control of the House. I'm Brian Tyler Cohen, and you're listening to No Lie. All right, so this past week, Nancy Pelosi's 82-year-old husband, Paul Pelosi, was attacked with a hammer in his home by some radicalized election-denying right-winger who'd broken into their house and had asked, where is Nancy? Paul Pelosi went to the hospital and had surgery to repair a skull fracture and some other injuries, but he's expected to make a full recovery. I honestly didn't intend to talk about this on the podcast because when it happened, I expected this kind of thing just to be roundly condemned by everyone, and so there really wouldn't be

a need to talk about it because, like, what is there to say? But then I saw the response from the right, and it came in two different ways. First of all, most people didn't say a word, which was pretty ironic, considering these were the same people having a collective fainting spell when protesters were chalking the sidewalk out of Brett Kavanaugh's house and claiming that that was the most dangerous act in American history, like protesting outside of his house. But then there were other Republicans who actually leaned into the violence to help themselves politically. I think people are tuning out to what the left has to say. They're realizing that it's the policies of the left that have made our streets

more dangerous. They're realizing that the crimes, whether they be a small crime where your car's broken into to a violent attack, it's because of leftist elected officials who have not enforce the laws. They're realizing that the wide open border. All of this is playing into what's happening on our street. But you've seen this effort to basically de-police, to demonize the police, to reduce consequences for crime. A homeless nudist, he was living in a storage locker and he was an illegal alien from Canada with a rap sheet in San Francisco, we believe, so he should have been deported, but San Francisco is a sanctuary city. They live in a town where lawlessness has been tolerated, right?

Because of the policies they advocate. Point being, this can happen anywhere. Crime is random, and that's why it's such a significant part of this election story here. It's interesting in the statement it said the motivation for the attack against Paul Pelosi is under investigation. People may be quick to make leaps to certain events in the past, certain political ideologies, what may have driven this person. And we can't make those leaps and we shouldn't make those leaps because we just don't know at this point

that this person could have been motivated by just about anything. We don't know. Yeah, I mean, the only indication we have is the where's Nancy or that he was waiting for Nancy, but we don't know his point of view. Starting to see a trend here.

Like, it's weird how not a single person on the right managed to acknowledge that this was a radicalized Republican looking to assassinate Nancy Pelosi. It was apparently just a random act of crime because San Francisco is a sanctuary state. I mean, It's amazing how even when one of their own people commits crimes because they were radicalized by right-wing media, that still somehow manages to be the Democrats' fault.

Pretty convenient, huh? And so when you have an entire major political party that seems incapable of condemning violence, but very eager and willing to exploit that violence for political purposes, you start to recognize that the violence isn't an accident. It's not some unfortunate byproduct. It is the point. It's the strategy. And when these Fox hosts and these Republican politicians celebrated or use it to try and prove, their pre-existing point, then all it does is glorify that violence. It validates violence as a political tool. And so like I said, like I didn't want to have to talk about the Speaker of the

House's husband getting bludgeon with a week to go into the election, but it's clearly indicative of a larger trend here, and that is the right's willingness, like eagerness to leverage political violence to achieve their goals. We saw it on January 6th, and instead of abandoning it, the GOP started elevating hundreds of election deniers for the next election. They're validating that violence. We see it with these shootings across the country that are virtually always done by some right-wing nut job who got radicalized online. And in response to that, loosen gun laws. They're

validating that violence. We see it with white supremacist groups. These guys marching at Charlottesville where Heather Heyer was ultimately killed. And in response to that, Republicans start pushing for laws, allowing vehicles to hit protesters. They are validating that violence. At some point, we have to recognize that this is a coordinated campaign to get

their way by exploiting not just that violence, but our unwillingness to confront it. The attack on Pelosi was at the bottom corner of the New York Times. This was a targeted assassination attempt of the Speaker of the House and Elon taking over Twitter was a bigger story according to the newspaper of record. And for some reason, if you protest outside of a restaurant where a Republican might hear you while enjoying his entree, then it's a crime wave and front page news. But a right-winger breaks

into Nancy Pelosi's house and bludgeoned her husband with a hammer while looking to assassinate her. And we're supposed to pretend that this isn't happening or that it's merely a lone wolf attack, or that, as Brett Baer said in that last clip I played, we can't exactly be sure why the assailant was looking for Nancy. Right, yeah, maybe he wanted to compliment her on getting the Pact Act passed. Until we start calling out right-wing violence, until the media takes it seriously, until these assailants are held to account in a big way,

it's going to continue. It's going to continue because we insist on pretending that it's not happening or that it's not a coordinated campaign, which it is. And look, just on a personal note, I know this stuff sucks. and I think the right relies on using that to their advantage and showcasing just how much it sucks because they know that people are more likely to give up

if things seem bad. And who could blame them? Who wants to deal with hate crimes and neo-Nazis and climate denialism and assassination attempts? It's dark. It's not what anyone would really choose to subject themselves to. But I would argue if you feel like giving up or if you feel like you or someone you know

is feeling more disaffected, that that's how you emboldened exactly what they're doing. If you give up because it's too ugly, you validate that hate and violence and ugliness as a political tool. And the next time they want to achieve something, they know to deploy it again. Now, with that said,

we have the only tool to stop it, and that's to vote. And I don't mean to be corny, but if we vote and we win, that is the only way to show them that their strategy is a losing one. The only way to get the right to change direction and to stop empowering the most radical,

extreme, dangerous people is to make sure those people lose. The whole point of these elections is to win. If they're not winning, then they're going to regroup and retool and change course to make sure that they win the next one. So if the last strategy was a losing one, you change that strategy. Like, if the whole point is power, then you don't gain anything by doubling and tripling down on a losing strategy.

So if you see the violence and the hate and the ugliness, while it might seem counterintuitive, don't let that dissuade you. Let that inspire you and be the inspiration that you need to vote, like to find friends to vote, to find family members to vote, all to make sure that the people employing that strategy know that that strategy is a losing one. We have the chance to do this right now, today, until November 8th. make sure you vote. Next up is my interview with Mallory McMorrow. Okay, now we have a member of the Michigan State Senate and rising Democratic star. Mallory McImore, thanks so much for coming on. Thanks for having me.

I'm thrilled. I've spent a lot of time interviewing candidates for the House and the Senate, but you're doing something just as important in Michigan. So, you know, I feel like Democrats are always trying to stave off losing state legislative chambers. Yours in Michigan is a top target for a flip to the Democrats. Can you give an update here with just over a week to go until midterms on how that's going? For sure. I mean, number one, I want to make the argument that state legislatures may be more important than the attention that we often pay to races at the top. No offense to my friends and federal colleagues. But Michigan is

really exciting. We had independent redistricting that gives us a chance for the first time in my entire lifetime to flip the state senate from Republican to Democratic control. We feel cautiously optimistic. I've been all over the state helping to raise money and get out on doors with our candidates and we just got to get through election day and get it done. And so what's effectively on the ballot if Michigan Democrats are able to flip the chamber? We have 40 years of an agenda that we have to make up for. You know, number one, I think that it is imperative that we fix the basics, that we protect voting rights that we codify reproductive rights and abortion access, even though we do have a ballot initiative in Michigan to do just that so that we can get back to normal. And then I know

my colleagues on the Democratic side, we want to lean into what makes Michigan the best place in the world, a place where people will come to for job opportunities, where we lean into protecting water and the environment and clean energy and really lead the way into what the future of the auto industry looks like, and mobility looks like, there's so many things. So one major issue I feel like we have to focus on is, you know, the fact that I believe 17 states less far have outlawed abortion. I think that number is going to probably rise to 26 after this next election cycle. Can you talk about Prop 3 in Michigan? Prop 3 in Michigan would amend our state constitution to effectively codify row on the state level.

So it would guarantee abortion access and also reprimor. rights when it comes to things like contraception, things like sterilization, which women and men both choose once they've maybe had the number of kids that they want to have in their family, so that that is a guaranteed constitutional right in our state that cannot be tampered with. And how has that issue impacted not just Democrats, but independence and Republicans since you've been on the campaign trail? You know, it's been really fascinating. I think that the Dobbs decision actually coming down, and taking Roe away has given so many more people the ability and the freedom to talk about this issue the way we should have been talking about it for decades.

You know, for decades, I feel like the issue of abortion has been caught in the rhetoric of either you're for abortion on demand or you're a baby killer, which is not at all what this issue was about. So we are hearing from so many women and families who have had complicated pregnancies, who have had ectopic pregnancies and survived, who have had miscarriages, that didn't pass and the hardship of having to go through to be able to have an abortion and just how complicated this issue really is. I heard from a constituent in one of the most Republican parts of my district that he actually saw petitions to get this issue on the ballot

circulating to collect signatures after mass at his Catholic Church. And that was a real moment for me where I recognized this is so much bigger than people who are showing up at rallies, right? These are hard conversations that people are having with their mothers, with their grandmothers, you know, people who know what this was like before Roe, and recognizing that this is something that we have to protect. But do you think that voters are recognizing, I mean, you have in Michigan, you have Prop 3 on the ballot. And so that kind of separates the issue from the candidates. But we shouldn't forget that Republican candidates, if they're elected to office, they'll still push forward legislation or laws that will undermine exactly this proposal.

So do you think that even those independents, even those Republicans who are out there supporting measures that would allow for bodily autonomy, do you think they're able to recognize that the people on the Republican side who are still vying for their votes are the ones that would put forward legislation that would undermine exactly this proposal? You know, I think the answer is twofold, because number one, I do think Michigan voters recognize that. But number two, as a Democratic candidate down ballot, that's part of our job, too, is to go out into the field, is to knock doors, is to talk to people about exactly this. So at the top of the ticket, we have Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who has been one of the most vocal advocates for this

issue. She filed a lawsuit in the state well before the Dobbs decision came out, and her lawsuit is the only thing keeping abortion legal in Michigan right now. On the other side, we have Tudor Dixon, who's somebody who has said over and over again that she does not believe in any exceptions for rape or incest. She has argued that a child victim of rape being forced to carry their rapist baby two term is actually a healing experience for, again, that child. It's just horrific. And Tudor Dixon has tried to make the argument now that you can vote for Prop 3 and you can vote for her. And I think that's really disrespectful for. to voters. Voters are a lot smarter than that. We have had 50 years of Roe where we've seen that, yes,

even when Roe was the law of the land, we still had legislatures all around the country chipping away at access, making it harder and harder and harder. And in our legislature, so our 1931 abortion ban makes abortion a felony with a minimum of four years in prison for any medical provider or anybody who aids in that abortion. The Republicans in our legislature not only have not taken up bills to repeal that law, but they've introduced legislation to expand it to 10 years in prison. So we have them on record of trying to make it significantly harder. We just have to make the case to voters that you can't have it both ways. And you deserve legislators who will respect the will of your vote on the ballot. Perfectly put. Another major issue that I feel like we

absolutely have to be cognizant of is the issue of Moore v. Harper, which is coming before the Supreme Court, that's the independent state legislature theory. Can you speak on that case that'll be argued in front of the court? And also, has it been a motivating factor for you as you've been trying to flip this chamber? It has. And for those who are not familiar with this case, Moore v. Harper is a case out of North Carolina related to gerrymandered maps that they put forward. And if the Supreme Court rules in its favor, they could do so under the independent state legislature theory, which you mentioned, which is a really extreme interpretation of the Constitution that would effectively say that state legislatures and state legislatures only

are the ones who oversee and facilitate elections. It means that they would not be accountable to the courts. It means they would not be accountable to secretaries of state or even state constitutions. And you can imagine if that's the reality, we could end up in a place where a state legislature could decide, well, we no longer want to run the popular vote for the president in our state. We just want to appoint electors ourselves. That is our right as the state legislature.

So it sets up a really scary future where we may not have free and fair elections for the presidency or for federal offices. if this were to go through. That is a huge motivating factor for me here in Michigan. We saw after the 2020 election, my Republican colleagues go out to Washington to meet with the Trump administration to talk about how to overturn the 2020 election results.

The Republican candidate for attorney general worked with the Trump administration on how to potentially overturn the 2020 election results. So I feel like Michigan is the episode. center right now. And it is more important for me and for our entire state to basically tell everybody who's trying to push forward on this extremist view of how our country should work, that it's not going to work. It doesn't work here. You're not going to win here. And we do that starting in our state legislature. And I hope that Michigan can become an example that the rest of

the country can follow. Yeah. And I think it's so important to talk about this now because it's kind of going to be the same situation as Roe was, where no one was paying attention to it. I mean, Roe is a worse example than this, because this is especially obscure, but no one was paying attention to it until the moment that it became too late, and suddenly everybody knew it was. Same as gerrymandering, where people didn't even know what that word meant until we were gerrymandered out of, you know, God knows how many seats. So I'm glad that we're able to, like, talk about this now.

Republicans have really focused for 50 years on state legislatures. They've outspent Democrats three to one. They've beaten Democrats out of 1,000 state legislature seats, 28 chambers, and on and on. If you could send a message to, you know, the powers that be about where they focus resources, what would you say? So it's an example that keeps me up at night all the time is in 2020 Democratic donors spent about $96 million. to try to defeat Mitch McConnell with Amy McGrath's campaign. And this is not a knock on Amy McGrath. I haven't met her personally,

but she seems like a perfect candidate and a wonderful person. But that was a race that Democrats just were not going to win. And simultaneously, the DLCC, which is the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, their budget for 2020, the entire cycle for all 50 states, for all state legislature seats combined was $51 million. less than right around half of what we were sending to one federal race. And, you know, it's been such a strange year for me, having gone viral for a speech that I gave and now being fairly well known to Democrats around the country, you know, people approach me all the time and ask me when

I'm going to run for higher office. You know, when am I going to run for U.S. Senate? What am I going to run for, you know, anything else? And it really misses the point. It feels like we always get caught in this trap of looking for the one solution at the top, whether it's a U.S. Senate race, whether it's the presidency. You know, I think a lot of people thought, once we get Trump out of office, that's going to fix everything. But it's not. It's not unless we build back this real political power in the states in every single

state legislature. And that is going to take time. It's going to take resources. And your resources are much better spent in state legislatures. You know, I'm the anomaly right now. one of the only state legislators in the country who is regularly on national TV. You're never going to see your state legislator on national TV. We're not going to be in national news, but you're going to see us in the grocery store.

We're the ones that you can actually talk to face to face. And these are races that are won with thousands of dollars, not millions of dollars. And we have to rebuild across the country. So that's my message is I know, you know, we're days out from the election. There's going to be that tension to go to whatever the U.S. Senate race is that is of the moment right now, don't do it. Look up your state legislator, look up who is in your chamber, and chip in to them. It's going to make a huge difference. What have you, and you may have answered this question, but what have you found is the most

effective way to make people recognize and care about these smaller races as opposed to, you know, the biggest Senate race going on in the country right now? Well, that's part of my strategy with this new platform that I've found for myself is I recognize that I'm very unique in that I do have the microphone. I do have this national attention on me. And if I can use myself as a spokesperson for the importance of state legislatures to introduce people to, you know, the incredible people that we have in Michigan right now, who I hope will become my colleagues who are running for state senate and really recognize that national media is that hook. to bring it down. That is what I'm really committed to doing right now. And my hope is that if and

when we flip the Michigan Senate, then it sends a signal to national Democrats all around the country that this is the way we have to do it. We can speak more honestly. We can talk about our values. We can be aggressive and we can win if we focus down ballot. And by the way, that's our bench too. So, you know, we have we have an issue with age in this party. we have an issue with people focusing on these right races. So, like, I think that when we're looking for, like, who's the next person? And especially in the case of where everyone's like, oh, we don't know who would take over after Joe Biden. But, like, building our bench is so important.

And that's exactly where these people come from. So with that said, you're 36, I believe, correct? Yes. What would you like to see from the party in terms of looking more like the people that it's trying to field for support? You know, I would love to see our party do more to amplify people like me and some of my colleagues. I mean, there are people like me in legislatures all around the country who are young, who are diverse, who have very different backgrounds, who are passionate and exciting and going about this in a different way. And, you know, you see the Republican Party right now getting caught up in cult of personality. It's all about Trump all the time. And Trump has quite literally said, you know, only I can fix it.

I think a strength of the Democratic Party is we are a big tent party. We are made up of so many different types of people. So let's put more of us out there. Let's showcase all of the diversity of our party by age. And here's a secret. You know, when everybody asked me, how are we going to get young people out to vote? Run young people for office. You know, we had, I talked to high school students and college students who, yes, I'm in my mid-30s, but I'm the youngest person in the Senate. I'm the closest person to them in age. And they can meet with me at a coffee shop. We can talk about gun violence. We can talk about solutions in a way that gets them engaged.

And as a party, I think we have to do a lot more to elevate way more voices than just the people at the top. Now, you actually flipped a Republican held seat. What issues are messaging were most resonant with the people of your district? Like, not just Democrats, but independence and Republicans. Yeah, you know, it was really fascinating. You know, I Googled how to run for office and I had never done this before. I left a very different career and I filed to run a year and a half before election day. So it was very early.

And I really like, like, I'm a nerd. I was trying to figure out, like, what are the most important issues? What's going to connect with people? And we were talking about a lot of issues. But I was surprised when I started knocking on doors. And, you know, you can imagine this was five years ago now. And when I'm out, like, with a backpack on in a baseball hat, I look like I'm 12. And I knocked on doors and I was worried that that was going to be.

a challenge. But I talked to so many residents who said, you remind me so much of my daughter or my son who left and went to Denver or Chicago or New York or L.A. And that became the hook was, what brought you back to Michigan and what can we do to keep my kids here? And that crosses party lines. That is just about, there was a recognition, I think, from some voters in my district who may be older, which is it's not as much about me anymore. It's about the next generation. And I think there's a huge string. to that that opened the door for me to talk about economic issues, water quality, how, you know, the suburbs where I serve connect to the city of Detroit and public transit and all of these things that I think Democrats are really strong in through the lens of this is the thing that's going to bring your kids back. With that said, you touched on your background. It is kind of weird, kind of unorthodox. Can you talk a little bit about what you did before you ran for a state senate? Yeah. I never had any idea that I would be here. I graduated from Notre Dame with a degree in industrial design and always wanted to be a car designer.

And I picked the worst possible time to do that in 2007 and 2008. So I graduated in 2008. I had an internship at Mazda. And then the entire industry fell off a cliff. So I lived in the back of my car. I worked in retail. I applied to probably 500 different jobs. But eventually found my way to Mattel, where I was a senior designer over global branding and licensing for Hot Wheels. And then that parlayed into some work in media. I was the creative director for Gawker Media. I was the partner in a production company that did documentary films and live events. And then when we moved back to Michigan, I opened my own consultancy doing a little bit of all of that. So I was consulting with the auto industry and smaller local businesses on

branding and creative direction. And then the 2016 election happened. And I think I, like a lot of people, woke up the next day and just thought, oh, crap. I got to do something. something about this and I don't know what yet if you I feel like I do this with my friends all the time but now we have this like explosion of EVs that are just everyone is just completely new, completely different. If you can get any EV that's on the market or not, what would it be? Oh, any EV? Okay. Well, this is something that I can't afford, but there is a startup company called charge that makes replica original Mustangs, but they're EV and they look super cool. They're like $200,000. I could not possibly afford it. But if, you know, Ford or anybody is out there,

if you make a replica original Mustang, EV, I'm all over it. So let's finish off with this. What's next for you? Well, what's next to flipping the Senate? You know, we got less than two weeks left. And I have been pulled in a lot of different directions. I've had a lot of people reach out and say, are you going to work with the DNC? Are you giving messaging training? But I am somebody, you know, I gave up my career to do this because I think this matters. And, and And my firm belief is that if we flip this chamber, this is an entirely new playbook, that that is something much more tangible, that then I can take back to the DNC, I can take back to the DLCC, I can work with legislators all over the country and say, this is how we go

forward, guys, let's get it done. So often that we hear like, okay, we just need to flip the chamber as if it's just this like ethereal thing. But day one, if Democrats control legislative chambers in Michigan, what would actually get done? Well, the question is, and this is sort of a wonky answer to the question, it's a question of whether or not we flip both houses, because it is a very different dynamic. Let's say if the Senate flips, but the state house doesn't, because then we've got a Democratic governor, one Democratic chamber and one Republican chamber. So we're still going to have to negotiate, but I think it gives us a much stronger leg to stand on in one chamber to really be pushing for a lot of our Democratic priorities on education funding, on voting rights and protections, on women's rights, on support. working families and trying to work with one chamber of Republicans to get something to the governor. Now, if both flip, I think you look at a state like Virginia, which, you know, that flipped in 2017. And I remember watching that when I was running in 2018 and looking at Virginia, like, we can do that here if they did it there.

And they were really aggressive on gun violence prevention, on reforming tax structure to make it more fair and really signaling this is what happens when you put Democrats in charge. And finally, how can we help? How can you help? Check me out on Twitter, which is an weird thing to say now that it's day one of Elon Musk owning Twitter. But link is in the top of my bio. My website is McMorrow for Michigan.com. And my PAC, which I open to support state legislators, is a more perfect to Michigan.com. Awesome.

We'll put that link in the show notes and the post description. Mallory McMorough, thank you so much for taking the time. And keep kicking out these last little overwork. week now. Yeah, thank you. You too. Now I've got the congressman from California's 49th congressional district, Mike Levin. Thanks so much for coming on. Thank you for having me, Brian. Great to be with you. So you're in one of the tightest races in the entire country right now for the House. How are things looking in your district right now? Well, we feel fantastic. We are just working around the clock every single day until election day so that when we wake up the morning

after the election. There are no more doors to knock, no more calls to make. We've given it our all and have no regrets. And I'm so proud of our team, Brian. They're just working incredibly hard. And we knew this was going to be a very competitive election. As soon as we saw the new district lines, and we saw that it was very, very tight in terms of registration between Democrats and Republicans, that we were going to have a tough fight on our hands. And then, of course, we've seen millions in dark money spending from Kevin McCarthy's Super PAC. And then, millions more in self-funding from our Trump Republican opponent. So we always knew this would be tough and we're going to sprint to the finish and run through the tape. How did the district change

after redistricting? What did it what did it go from looking like? So it was a D plus seven district, D plus six, D plus seven. And then after redistricting, it was D plus two. It's a district that encompasses both Orange County and San Diego County. And we wound up in the new district with slightly more of Orange County, a new city of Laguna Nigel, which is a fantastic city. It's just new turf for us. It's 60,000 people that we have not represented in the past. So we've had to go out and communicate very aggressively with everybody in Laguna Nigel. And we have done that. So we are, you know, leaving it all in the field, as they say. So people might look at these house races and think, you know, it's just one more race. It's not that important because it's just one more

house race out of 435. But if your race is the tipping point, what does? does a Democratic House look like versus a Republican House? Well, I really do think that races like ours are the tipping point, depending on which projections you look at. There are 20 or 30 toss-up seats, and we've got to win most of them as Democrats to hold on to the majority. But the differences are huge. The stakes are tremendous, Brian. Think of Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The thought gives me great pause just because I know my background is on climate environmental policy. Speaker Pelosi put me on the Select Committee for the climate crisis. I've been fighting very hard to reduce our greenhouse gas

emissions across all sectors. We passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest climate bill in history that reduces emissions 40 percent by 2030. But that means we've got a long way to go. And if Kevin McCarthy is the Speaker of the House, I think one of the first things that he would do is dismantle the Select Committee on Climate altogether, because too many in there. their party don't even accept basic science. And I would offer to you, Brian, that the Republican party in the United States is the only major political party of any major industrialized nation that so will not accept the scientific consensus on climate. It hasn't always been this way, but I think that campaign finance has an awful lot to do with it. In my race, the Congressional

Leadership Fund, which is Kevin McCarthy's Super PAC, they put in between three and a half and four million dollars in counting. And we actually dig into who funds them. It's probably no surprise as people like the American Petroleum Institute, Coke Industries, Chevron, Exxon, and the list goes on. And of course, they don't like members like me because, number one, I don't play their game. I don't take their money. I don't take any corporate pack money. And number two, I'm actually willing to stand up for consumers as these oil companies are engaged in price gouging and taking advantage of people at a very difficult time. So that's a good segue into my next question, which is that the Democrats had introduced the bill to stop price gouging at the

pump. Your legislation was a part of that. Just this past week, we learned that Shell had quarterly profits of $9.5 billion, and that was just this quarter alone. This is a twofold question, but what's your response to oil companies like Shell, and I'm sure the whole raft of other companies along with them when we have their profits reported as well? And what would you say to Republicans who have pretended that the only reason that we're contending with these high prices is because of inflation or Joe Biden when very clearly there's a lot of corporate greed happening right now. Well, Brian, I have said for many months that we have three P's to blame the pandemic, Putin, and price gouging. And ultimately what these oil companies are doing,

making record profits with huge executive compensation packages, stock buybacks, and dividends at a time when the average American is struggling to make ends meet, when they're paying exorbitantly high prices. It is unconscionable. These oil companies have to be held to account, and I'm open to any and all creative ideas to do that. Now, one of the things that is specifically happening for your audience in California, where we pay almost two bucks higher per gallon on average, is that we have air quality challenges here in California. We have for many years, and so we require a special blend of gasoline, which means less refinery capacity. We have 17 refineries in California. In the month of September, six of them went offline all at once, really unprecedented to see a $1.54 increase in the price per gallon of gasoline in California just related to the costs and the profits of the California oil refineries.

They offered no reasonable explanation, no transparency, no accountability. They just pointed fingers rather than accept any responsibility. And that's why I've demanded that the Federal Trade Commission launch a federal investigation, into the lack of transparency of our California oil refineries and specifically look at whether there was any market manipulation, any anti-consumer or anti-competitive behavior, and if so, they need to be fined and punished appropriately. By the way, this is why these oil companies are spending millions to defeat me. And the second half of that question, what do you say to the Republicans who've spent so much time blaming Joe Biden, blaming or allowing Republicans to

point to inflation as the culprit for all of this when it's not those things? I mean, we have the numbers right in front of us in black and white, these oil companies are raking in almost tens of billions of dollars in quarterly profits. Well, I'd say two things, Brian. First, is they're unwilling to go after the oil companies because of the massive sums of money that these companies are pumping into their campaigns. And in many cases, like my opponent, my Trump Republican opponent, in our race, he actually has hundreds of thousands of dollars of personal investments in these oil and gas and fossil fuel stocks himself. So there's no way he's going to stand up to them. The second thing, you know, ultimately at the end of the day, if Kevin McCarthy takes the,

you know, the gavel, God forbid, you will see them doubling and tripling down on the dirty energy policies of the past rather than what we really need to be doing, which is building a bridge towards a sustainable energy future. That's what I've been, you know, fighting my entire professional career to do. And what I always say is that we all want energy independence. The difference is that many of us who advocate for clean energy, we want clean energy independence. We don't want to be beholden to Vladimir or Saudi Arabia or Venezuela or any of these countries with the very troubling geopolitics and human rights abuses going on. We need to stand up and have our own supply of domestic clean energy. That means more renewables. It also means more electric

vehicles and the grid needs to be modernized to handle all the above. And unfortunately, if the Republicans are elected, they will take us many steps back, denying the basic science and denying the sort of investment that will be needed, not only to protect our environment, but to grow our economy, Brian, this is all about creating the clean energy jobs of the future. And I know we can do it. And I know the people want it. It's just the Republican politicians are in the back pocket of big oil. Right. Those same politicians, by the way, who are falling over themselves to congratulate themselves for all of this investment and money coming into their states because of the chips act because of the inflation reduction act so when micron when when you know all of these

companies are announcing tens of billions of dollars of investments and tens of thousands of jobs coming into these different states in wisconsin and ohio they're they're the first ones taking the applause and shaking everybody's hands on the receiving lines but at the same time they're all voting against this stuff but this stuff wouldn't exist if we didn't start investing in renewables and chips and stuff for the future as opposed to just entrenching our reliance on a dying industry of oil and gas and fossil fuels. So I think that's- Well, they like to vote no and take the dough. And the other thing is they have no plan. That's the other huge challenge here is that they're attacking us nonstop in race after race all across the country for the House and the Senate on what

we have done on the affirmative steps we have taken. And I'm proud of the Inflation Reduction Act, among other measures on ocean shipping reform, on a baby formula, on price gouging for big oil, on transparency for these refineries. But the Republican plan is basically tax cuts for rich people. It's a bunch of bull. They really don't have any substance. They just like to point fingers at us without offering any suggestions that will actually alleviate the problem might actually make things worse.

Well, to be fair, their plan also includes banning abortion and banning books. So can't forget those things. As you've spoken about, you know, you are one of the climate champions in the Congress. What will the climate provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act mean as far as climate is concerned? I think people see the Inflation Reduction Act as like people who don't pay attention to this stuff every single day as like this nebulous piece of legislation. But what specifically will that bill mean for climate? Well, it's the biggest investment in climate in the history of the United States, the history of any nation. and the provisions in there, which are a combination of tax incentives and grants and other types of provisions,

will dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions that the estimates across the border are somewhere around 40% in greenhouse gas reduction from 205 levels by 2030. And what that means is it will impact every part of the greenhouse gas puzzle. So how we build buildings, how we grow food, how we drive people around, how we generate electricity to do all the above. All of those things will be dramatically impacted. And businesses and individuals will have an easier decision to make when putting solar on their roof or batteries in their business or an electric vehicle in their garage actually makes a lot more economic sense than it did before. So it will help us get from where we are to where we need to be by 2030, but it's really important where we go after that. And what I like about the Implation Reduction Act also is that it focuses on a shift in industrial manufacturing policy where we're not just using technologies to reduce our emissions in 2030, 40 years, but we're ensuring as much as we can that those technologies are assembled, manufactured, and invented in the United States of America. So we're capturing all that economic opportunity that that presents, not just using technologies invented, manufactured, assembled elsewhere.

Right. I think that's especially important, too, because, you know, we have the Republicans who spend so much time complaining about China and then at the same time sacrificing all of our renewable manufacturing right to that country. I mean, look what happened with solar panel production. We basically ceded any leadership in that realm all the way to China, and we have no ownership over any solar panel companies. here in the U.S. because of what we've allowed to happen by virtue of just, again, protecting a dying industry in oil and gas. My great hope is we've gotten it right this time with domestic manufacturing, building it in America. And we have to keep at it, though. This bill is not going to change everything the way that it's needed for the long term, but it's a great start. Yeah. And I would caution, too, on that same note, that it's probably on the chopping block

if Republicans do take control. So if people were happy about giving the government the ability to negotiate lower drug prices and some tax fairness on the corporate profits front. And of course, this climate spending, you know, it's only so it's only as strong as we allow our majority to remain in Congress to protect that legislation is. If Democrats hold the House, what do you want to see next on the climate front? Well, we have that other 60%. As I mentioned, we reduced emissions 40% by 2030. We've got a long way to go. And we're going to have to make a lot of investments in the electric grid specifically, making sure that as we advance more electric vehicles, as we advance more solar and renewables, offshore wind, we've got to have the grid of the future that will

support all of that. Some of that funding was put into the bipartisan infrastructure law to modernize the grid, but not nearly enough. And we're going to have to go a lot further in that regard. Just to saying there's a lot more we can do, I think, on agriculture policy in this country, we have to remember the greenhouse gas emissions related to agriculture. So across the board, we're going to have to do more. We're going to have to be faster. And I want to say one other thing, which is that you often hear a lot about the cost of these plans, right? You hear that the Inflation Reduction Act included $370 billion for climate. But think of it as an investment and also consider what it would cost if we did nothing at all. I have a good friend, an economist up at Stanford,

Marshall Burke, and he's done a lot of work on this. And he is estimating. that if we don't take any action on climate, we just keep the status quo, that it would cost us $25 trillion in the coming decades. So the next time you think about the investment that we just made, think of it in the terms of the opportunity cost and think not only for the planet, again, but for the economy and ultimately what it would cost to do nothing.

What's like one specific project that you'd be especially excited about? That maybe isn't so well known, but that could hopefully be implemented if we have more funding toward climate. Like what's one weird, like underground nebulous thing that you think could be, that has a lot of promise? Well, I'll give you one that isn't necessarily known by all of your viewers and listeners, but is really important to our district, which is the rail corridor that connects Los Angeles and San Diego.

Climate change has eroded our coastline, our beaches, our bluffs, to the point now where that rail corridor is at, great risk. And when it was originally designed along the beach, for those who've been in Southern California, if you've driven on the five freeway, you've seen that rail corridor adjacent to the ocean, it was originally designed when San Diego County only had around 20,000 people instead of over 3.2 million people. And it's really at risk. So in both the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan infrastructure law, my hope is that we'll be able to get the federal funds to relocate certain parts of that rail corridor. We just had

Secretary Buttigieg out this past week just a few days ago to look at that corridor firsthand. And it's striking, Brian, because you see parts of it where you have the eroding coastline where it's only a few years off, the projection that, you know, the rail corridor will not be functional. So we've got to get on this. And finally, finally, we have the funding through these new piece of legislation. From the people that you've spoken with on the campaign trail, how important is climate I know that we hear that it's like, you know, as a young person, it's one of, if not the most important issue for me, but, and we hear that so often that like, oh, young people climb it, but from the people that you've actually spoken to on the ground, because I know, you know, what we talk about in more of a theoretical way is not always necessarily how it plays out in reality. How important is this issue? Well, I think it's really important in an area like ours. So I wouldn't say it's the leading

issue in every district across the country, of course, but I think when you look at our coastal community where you have, again, beaches eroding, bluffs collapsing, a rail corridor at risk, it is every single day on my mind and on the minds of our coastal communities. And that's why I felt my background as a clean energy advocate and environmental attorney would be put to good in this community and it certainly has been. I'll also say that it's motivated a tremendous amount of grassroots support in our district. And we need a whole lot of that to defeat all that dark money and self-funding that I mentioned. Now, obviously, climate isn't the only issue. A district like yours where it's become so close, where you brought in so many otherwise Republican voters in previous

elections, what issues have been resonating, not just with Democrats, but with independents and Republicans. How have you been able to reach across the proverbial aisle to get their support in your campaign? Well, I speak to voters every single day, and I will every single day for as long as I can. And I hear a lot about other issues like gun violence prevention. I hear about reproductive rights. I hear about LGBTQ equality. And look, I hear from a lot of Republicans who are fiscally conservative, but simply do not understand what has happened to the Republican Party. They belong to the Republican Party in the days of John McCain and Bob Dole and Heck, Mitt Romney. You know, and they just don't understand this cult of personality that they're seeing today,

and they don't associate with it. And also, we cannot and must not underestimate the importance of protecting democracy itself. I stand up every day trying to focus on what it means to have American democracy not only thrive. I should say not only survive, but thrive in the 21st century. I have two young kids, my wife and I, 10 and 8 years old, and I really worry that we're not going to hand them the country that I recognize, the democracy that my grandfather fought for in World War II, fighting up against tyranny. My opponent in this race actually blamed the Democrats for January 6th. He has a video where he says that it was our fault for the coup that we attempted against Trump with the Russia investigation. And he waited about a year and a half to finally admit that Joe Biden had won the election and Donald Trump had lost.

And unfortunately, that's what we're up against all across the country is people who are fundamentally unwilling to stand up for American democracy. and we can't allow that to infect the country writ large. Yeah. Projection is a hell of a drug. Let's finish off with this. What would be most helpful here from my audience, my listeners? You know, my biggest demographic is Southern California. How can we help?

Well, I always think that grassroots is what got us the seat in the first place, what flipped the seat after 18 years of Darrell Issa representing the community. And that's what we need right now. So it's all about money and mobilization. So if people are able to help financially, obviously, that's terrific. But we need volunteers. We need people who are willing to go in the home stretch here, knock on doors, make calls, get the word out. And the good news is lots of people from L.A. have come down through, really all throughout

Southern California. I can offer beautiful coastal views as you knock on some great doors in our communities. But everybody can just go to Mikeleven.org, M-I-E-L-V-I-N, and sign up. We'd love to see you. And I would just, I would just, you know, reiterate exactly that for people in Los Angeles, I know that's a huge contingent of people listening and watching right now. If you're looking for a way to actually help, and I know that we live in this like deep blue bastion where it feels like all we can do is, I guess, like, tweet and hope that somebody from the other

side of the country or in some swing district in Michigan or Florida, Texas, here's it. You know, we need help right here in California's 49th. And so I would just reiterate, go to that website and spend a day. knocking on doors, it will make a huge difference. This is the kind of stuff that matters. It's not all about these sexy Senate races. These House races are just as important if we want to pass any legislation,

including legislation to codify Roe, including continuing to protect climate and on and on. So with that said, Mike, thank you so much for taking the time and best of luck in this last week here on the campaign trail. Thank you, Brian. I appreciate it. And come on out. Everybody, we need your help. Thanks again to Mike Levin. One last note, and that is to vote,

early. And there's actually a few reasons for that. First, I know you're probably getting harassed by campaigns. Once you vote, they'll take you off their get-out-the-vote list, so you're way less likely to be bothered. Second, once they stop spending time and resources reaching out to you, they can use that time in those resources contacting lower propensity voters like young people in independence. Third, you voting early frees up space at the polling places on Election Day. So for all that talk about long lines of the polls, every person who votes early is another five minutes saved on November 8th for someone who might not be able to vote early for whatever reason.

And last, if you vote, it creates a bandwagon effect. It shows your social circles that everyone is voting, and FOMO is real, and if it feels like everyone's doing it, that's a pretty good way to persuade more people to do it. All right, that's it for the episode. We're in the home stretch. Thank you for listening. 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.