The Adam Mockler Show - This is how we end Trump's term...

Episode Date: October 28, 2026

https://joeforcolorado.com/get-involved/Adam Mockler is joined by Congressman Joe Neguse and Secretary Pete Buttigieg to break down the upcoming midterm elections.Bookmark 'Election Night with Adam Mockler': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGDKvaswxNIClick below for premium Adam Mockler content:👉 https://adammockler.com/subscribe👉 https://www.youtube.com/@adammockler/join👉 https://www.youtube.com/@AdamMocklerClipsJOIN THE COMMUNITY: Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AdamMockler/Discord: https://discord.gg/y9yzMU3GffInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/adammockler/Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/adammockler.com/Twitter: https://x.com/adammocklerr/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@adammocklerContact: [e-mail] inquiries: [e-mail] Mockler - Mockler Media LLC

The president is obviously not well. He's getting stranger. When that happens, that doesn't just diminish him. It diminishes the entire country and in many ways it dangers the country. The Trump era can begin to come to an end in just one week. Because if the American people make it clear after basically a decade of this, and I hate to say it, but even when he was out of power, the truth is we were still living in that Trump era.

But just as it was still going on while he was out of office, It can come to an end while he's still in office. We are only a few days out from the midterm elections in 2026, and I am proud to be joined today by former Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg in Colorado Representative Joe Noghous. Thank you guys for joining me, and let's waste no time at all. Congressman Noghous, I want to ask you a question first. If Democrats do folk the House and the Senate, what do you think should be the first legislative

priority? I've seen you talk a lot about corruption issues. stock trading, citizens united, and we have seen an unprecedented level of corruption coming from this administration. Should that be the first focus? Or where do you think we should take it right when Democrats take power? Well, short answer is yes. Look, I think if we're fortunate enough to win in six days and ultimately begin to reclaim our republic with the new majority in the House of Representatives, we're going to have our work cut out for us over the course of the first hundred hours and the first hundred days. And my view is that we should be laser focused on two things. One,

taking on the entrenched corruption that's become so pervasive in Washington. You noted that. There are a wide variety of policies that I've worked on for years and that Pete, of course, is champion from banning lawmakers from trading stocks, ethics reforms, and the like, of course, overturning Citizens United. All of that ought to be steps that we take in the early hours of the 120th Congress. But I also believe those aren't mutually exclusive to passing policies that make life more affordable for everyday Americans and reversing the Medicaid cuts, advancing the ACA subsidies, ending this terrible an unjust war in Iran, and of course, ending the reckless tariffs. I mean, all of that, in my view, I think would be a policy agenda that's ripe for

delivering for hardworking Americans here in Colorado and across the country. Absolutely. Now, Secretary Buttigieg, if you could build off of that, how do you think we can rewire the incentives of many politicians away from just taking money from special interest groups and selling out to corporations? and actually towards serving their constituents. Oftentimes we see their incentives distorted. What is your framework for this? Well, you know, I agree with Congressman Neguse.

There is a direct relationship between the corruption of our political system and the frustrating economic outcomes that are affecting the kitchen table. So as we are setting out to put money back in people's pockets, make sure that people have health care, raise wages, lower costs. The truth is we've got to confront a political system that is kicking the legs out from under the kitchen table. I think the original sin in all of this is money in politics. I think in the long run, given the way the Supreme Court has been, we need both Supreme Court reform and a constitutional amendment so that, you know, whoever happens to be on the Supreme Court, the American people have spoken clearly through constitutional change, that money is not the same thing as speech and corporations are not the same thing as people. That could take many years, which is no reason to hesitate to do it. It does mean we've got to take a lot of action that won't take so long. And that's why, taking steps right out of the gate, much as we've seen happening a lot of states.

I was proud to support the Montana plan. That is a ballot-level initiative where voters are saying at the state level, that they will update the definition of a corporation so that part of what it takes to be a corporation doing business in Montana is you don't get to spend your treasury dollars to manipulate an election. It's a very smart legal theory that's kind of a bank shot around Citizens United, though I'm sure it will be challenged in court. But I'm very hopeful that that's going to pass. And the bigger picture is, you know, until we have real political reform, we're going to continue asking ourselves, how is it that so many things have dramatically strong support among the American people and still can't get through Congress or can't get through their state capitals?

A lot of people in my generation just want change. Oftentimes, Republicans will try to simplify it as young people studying Karl Marx or turning far left. The reality is young people just feel like there is a broken generational compact. Things aren't affordable. Our debt is racking up, whether it's medical debt, student loan debt or credit card debt, and housing is getting farther and farther away. So this affordability message really needs to be hit on, especially at a time when the Iran war is raging on. And then the tariffs cost every American family $1,000 to $2,000 extra dollars. Let's zoom in on Colorado a little bit.

You know, the more I researched about Victor Marx, the more I was really just concerned about this man and the state of the Republican Party. He's gotten a lot of criticism for violating campaign finance laws, allegedly, you know, pushing and hurting his wife, and for insinuating that he may have killed multiple people. How is his candidacy on a statewide level affecting the down-ballot races? Well, as you can imagine, Adam, you know, given the litany of transgressions and just the fact that he is arguably the most extreme candidate that Republicans have nominated for statewide office in Colorado in the modern history of the state. it is not going to bode well for them come November 3rd next week.

I have every expectation that Attorney General Wiser, who of course the secretary worked with when he was Secretary of Transportation, working to protect consumers in a variety of different settings. I believe he will be our next governor. I think he's going to win decisively. And ultimately, he will win by such a margin that we will be successful in the four congressional seats that are right now ultimately up for grabs. I mean, the reality is in Colorado, we have a potential opportunity to sweep all eight seats. the 8th district, the 5th district, the 4th, and the 3rd, in addition to the four seats held by Democrats, myself included. And I believe that Victor Marx's candidacy, I suspect, is going to be an

anchor on Dave Evans and Jeff Crank and some of the other Republican members of Congress here in our state that ultimately are likely not to be reelected in six days. It is absurd seeing the state of the Republican Party. They are bear-hugging extremists on the national level. I mean, you guys saw Beau French down in Texas, tweeting about that University of Texas football game and posting against diversity in America, which should be fundamental. It feels like the people in power on the Republican side

hate everything about America at a very fundamental level while acting like they love it. They hate the diversity, they hate the freedom that we enjoy in our elections, they hate the fact that people of any sort of race or religion can move here and build a good life. And the most important part is they're taking attention away from the affordability issues

that we're always talking about. Trump is focused on his ballroom. Trump is focused on his reflecting pool and not focused on the actual issues. Secretary Buttigieg, when it comes to affordability and policy, what type of policy in particular are you looking at? Yesterday I did this debate on Fox News, and I realized halfway through the debate that at least the Democratic Party is having an internal debate and dialogue on health care. We may not all agree, like Tala Rico's platform is different than Al-Syad's platform is different than Zoran's ideas, but at least we're having this internal dialogue. On the Republican side, they just want to strip health care away. So what specific policies are you looking at to help the American people? Look, if something's unaffordable, let's break it down.

There's two things that go into that. How much you make and how much it costs. And we need to work on both. It's time to give the American people a raise. We haven't raised the federal minimum wage since 2009, which means in real terms, it's worth about a third less than it used to be. Even though the American worker is about a third more productive if you look at GDP per capita. So first and foremost, it sounds very simple. But here's an example of an idea that most Americans support, depending how high you raise it. It's an idea that most Republicans support, not Washington Republicans, but people around the country. And so from the basics like that to making sure that people have things like paid family leave and affordable childcare so that they can afford to raise a family, to the cost of health care. You're right,

there's some different flavors of exactly how to do it. But the bottom line is we've got to make sure everybody covered and we've got to tackle the cost of it. Same with prescription drugs. Some of the stuff is complicated. Some of it is not. We have got to put more money in people's pockets and cut the cost of living. Representative Nagu's, same question to you. What policy ideas make you giddy heading into this next Congress? How much time do you have, Adam? Look, I first would say I completely agree with the secretary. And what makes our party so unique and so exceptional in my view is that we have this diversity of views all undergirded by the same values. And as Pete noted, I think the values of ensuring that folks have equal opportunity to be able to pursue their dreams to make life more

affordable for hardworking families that are really struggling right now. And you hit the nail on the head, Adam, with respect to young people in particular, both Pete and I, you know, we're elder millennials. So we're young, we're certainly young compared to our peers in Washington, D.C., in public life. And I know from conversations I have every day with friends and folks in my community that the economic exhaustion is so real and visceral for countless people in our country. So from my perspective, policies that, as Pete said, put more money in the pockets of hardworking Americans that achieve universal health care, they give people the opportunity to pursue gainful employment that improves their quality of life. That's the ballgame, as far as I'm

concerned. Coupled with taking on the entrenched corruption, and we've got to be clear-eyed about that, as Pete articulated so well. For the first time in about a decade, the power center of the Democratic Party is shifting downwards in age. I view this as a generational change election. It feels like we have, I don't know, Senator Dick Durbin retiring, Nancy Pelosi retiring. A lot of people that were titans of the House and the Senate are leaving, and we have younger faces on the rise. Are you guys viewing this as a midterm of generational change, how Democrats are engaging in media, even this interview in and of itself, is a departure from how interviews happened 20 years ago or 10 years ago. How are you guys viewing this next stage of the Democratic Party? Yeah, from my side, I'm definitely

seeing it as I'm traveling around the country, whether it's the candidates we're working with right here in this business of Colorado or the people that I see stepping into leadership roles, providing new ideas, whether we're talking about millennials in going into Congress or more Gen Z figures stepping up to run. And certainly the media landscape has shifted too. And look, this in many ways feels like something breaking loose that's been building up for a long time. Think about this. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump were all born within a few weeks of each other. They were all born, if I'm not mistaken, in the same summer of 1940. and President Biden pretty similar generationally too.

You look around Capitol Hill. You can see that there's just something that is shifting dramatically right now. And a new generation rising up to be part of this policy conversation. And look, young voters who, I get it if a lot of young voters are down on the political system because it's failed them in so many ways. But the best way to do something about that is to use the power that you have. I've seen young people assert and use the power of independent media, and now young citizens need to use the maximum power you ever have in your hands as an individual citizen, which is when you get to vote. Yep, I like to approach it with optimism as well. At the end of the day, we do live in a great country that has democratic institutions that are still preserved, and young people will someday take the keys to these institutions and hopefully be able to rewire the incentives of many of our politicians or the distorted money that we currently have.

I guess I have one final genuine question for both of you. I want to start with you, Representative. It revolves around the state of mind of the president of the United States right now. For the past decade, throughout all of my formative years as a young person, I've watched the president say the most vile, vitriolic things. And for the past year, it's kind of come to a climax as he's making fun of Rob Reiner or Rob Mueller after they die. He's on stage talking about Abdul al-Sayyad and making fun of his name or calling him Mohamed.

it is just direct vitriol from the president of the United States. And even a decade into this, I think we're all still kind of wondering how this is reality sometimes. What do you guys think is going on with the state of mind of the president? He's constantly talking about people's like bodies and men's asses and his ballroom. It's getting to a really weird point. What do you guys think is actually happening there, representative? Look, I'm probably the last person to ask to opine on the president's mental health. He's clearly unwell.

But I guess what I would also say is for 10 years, this brand kind of punchmouth, divisive, vitriolic politics has largely dominated the political ecosystem. And it's a profound tragedy when one thinks about it, particularly for your generation, you know, for younger folks who have only seen, you know, this kind of version of politics. And my sense is that notwithstanding the deeply distressing and disturbing vitriol that he can. continues to, you know, perpetuate these rallies and all the rest, that notwithstanding that people are really hungry for something different. It's just my honest answers. I think as I travel our state, I spent the last 11 days visiting 31 cities in Colorado, including a lot of Republican parts of our state on the western slope, eastern plains,

and of course, grateful to the secretary for coming out out west. And I would just tell you that folks want something more aspirational, they want something more hopeful, they believe that there's a better way, and that perhaps there's an opportunity to begin to turn that page, I think the first opportunity is six days from now, and then the real work starts going into 2028, and I'm optimistic about that work. Jim, Secretary, what are your thoughts?

Well, I share that view. Look, the president is obviously not well. He's getting stranger. When that happens, that doesn't just diminish him. It diminishes the entire country, and in many ways, endangers the country. But to Joe's point, I think it's also the case that there is a brand or a style of politics,

that as long as it seems successful inspires imitators, which I'm just as worried about, whether you have the statewide candidate here in Colorado imitating that extremism or a candidate like Vivek over in Ohio imitating the cruelty because they think that works. And so part of what we have a chance to do in just a few days is to begin to turn the page on that entire style of politics. Look, even if President Trump is going to be in office for two more years, the Trump air, can begin to come to an end in just one week. Because if the American people make it clear after basically a decade of this, and I hate to say it, but even when he was out of power,

the truth is we were still living in that Trump era. But just as it was still going on while he was out of office, it can come to an end while he's still in office. When we end that style of politics being rewarded, and there's a chance to send just an unmissable message from coast to coast with the results of these midterm elections that are now just a few hours away, a few days away. Yep. Thank you guys so much. Congressman, Secretary, thank you. I will link Joe for Congress in the description below. Everybody go check it out. We have a few days until the midterms, and we should all

unite for this. So thank you, and we'll chat again. Sounds good. Thanks for having us.