The Young Turks - You WON'T BELIEVE The Life Story Of Congressman Gil Cisneros

Episode Date: May 28, 2025

Congressman Gil Cisneros talks to Cenk Uygur on The Young Turks about growing up in a blue-collar family. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to The Young Turks, the online news show. Make sure to follow and rate our show with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five stars. You're awesome. Thank you. All right, welcome back to the Young Turks. We're doing some interesting interviews here in the 8 o'clock hour going forward. So joining me today in studios, Representative Gil Cisneros, Congressman, thank you for joining us. Appreciate it. No, thank you for having me.

All right, so the congressman is from the 31st District of California. He's a Democrat, and he even has a podcast I was on called Houdem, which is kind of a fun podcast. It feels like a representative from Louisiana should have that podcast, or maybe Cincinnati, but still. Okay, so what I want to do is first, I want to get to know you, okay? And then I want to talk about what the Democrats are going to do in Congress and what they're doing to oppose Trump. So where'd you grow up? I grew up in here in Southern California, a city called Torrance, it's where I was born,

was where I was raised, went to high school there, left as soon as five days after I graduate of my school, went off and joined the Navy, and I was off to boot camp, and never kind of really went back there since, right? But, you know, Southern California is my roots. It's where my family still is here. It's where me and my wife have settled,

and it is home. What did your parents do? to. You know, my dad, you know, was a Vietnam veteran. He kind of, you know, he worked for a company for, it was Reynolds Middle. They made aluminum cans. He did that for a long time over, over 20 plus years. And then one day, they just kind of said, oh, you know what, we don't need you anymore. So then he kind of just, you know, tried to get back and kind of did a lot things. He actually kind of got into TV in a little bit. Like he worked for directing shows. on a home like a shopping network and I like a really small like little what I mean

it wasn't you know huge or anything but they sold jewelry and and things like that he kind of did that for a little while too maybe it was an Alcoa fantastic finish after all okay so so your dad's basically a blue collar guy right right and so you guys are California right right for a lot of folks don't know what that means what does that mean I don't know actually but from California, right? Our family was from here. This is where our roots are. You know, people say like, well, I used to always get asked. Like, well, when did your family move to California? And my family's always been in California. You know, we've got, we didn't come here. Cal, the United States came to us. Okay, so your family was here before California became a state. Okay, that's kind of badass. Right. It feels a little yellow stone. Okay. So that's neat. Okay. So what did you do for a living? after the name. So I went and worked at Frito Lay for a little bit.

CEO, CFO, what are we talking about? I was a manager, you know, it kind of ran different shifts, right? So I was first in the shipping, ran the third shift on the warehouse and shipping and shipping and distribution. Then after doing that for about three years, I moved over to the manufacturing side and pretty much ran the Funnions and Munchies team there for, you know, on the first shift. there for a little while. So, you know, kind of, you know, basically like right there, I had a team of people that kind of worked and made the product. And, but I always say like, you know, my connection to people, right, is I stood the midwatch, you know, on the ship. And then I worked a night shift, you know, as well, like, you know, at Frito-Lay. So yeah, I've kind of done those things. And I

think it's connect, right? It's, you know, I had real jobs, real done real things that people do So it's my connection to people, I think, and people really kind of, I think that's what helped me connect with them. Yeah, that makes sense, because you had real jobs. You're a real American. And although I am looking forward to the Funnian caucus in the Congress, a little bit of a mix of fun and onion, maybe it's a little satirical, plus you get to hand out the snacks, One for everyone. Munchy's caucus could also work. But okay, so that's great.

That's an all-American story. So then wait a minute, what happened? How'd you get here? You know, I left Frito-Lay. You know, making chips was not something that I think I wanted to continue to do with my life. And I did kind of feel, you know, I got out of the Navy, right? And I did feel like there was a void as far as like serving and really kind of contributing. And so I was looking to do what was gonna come next

and then just happened to go get dinner one day at an L&L barbecue and saw they had a lottery machine and said, well, along with my chicken dinner, why don't you give me 10 lottery tickets too? And believe it or not, I actually won. How do you like them apples? You like barbecue? How you like that kind of barbecue?

Yeah, so it was a life changing experience that allowed my wife and I to start our foundation that we put money into, a big portion of our winnings in there, and we started focusing on educational issues around college access programs, college scholarships, other things. But you know, the thing that I saw that at that time we were living in Pico Rivera, California, and I was seeing a lot of the kids that were trying to go, wanted to do more, right? They wanted to go to college, they wanted to make more of their self, but they didn't really know how to do it. And they faced a lot of the same obstacles or challenges that I faced when I was coming to right. There was nobody in my family with the college. There was nobody to ask. And a lot of these kids had that same issue. And so we tried to really kind of focus and really kind of

helped them navigate the process because a lot of them didn't know how to do that. So what was the name of the restaurant again? L&L Hawaiian barbecue. Oh, at a Hawaiian barbecue and they're selling lottery tables. What were the chances? And boom, you hit the double rainbow. Right. And it was not a little winnings. It wasn't like sometimes, oh, it was a scratch off. Oh, nice, 5,000 nice, right? No, it won one of those. No, it was life changing.

It was, we didn't, we took the lump sum, but the winning was $266 million. Jeez, I'm Lord mercy. Yeah. Okay. God bless, man. So, but look, you immediately do philanthropy after that. That's beautiful, helping other people come up. Right.

So that's, you know, you would want someone like you to win a lot of it. Right? Yeah. Instead of the guy who's like, ah, Ferrari, woohoo. Wait, wait, did you get a Ferrari? No, I bought, I did have, you know, I had the same truck for 14 years. I did get a new car, I got a Denali was their first purchase. Oh, that's Showsha, that's no big deal, okay.

So, in fact, that makes you feel more, oh, America, you got a Denali, got a big truck. Okay. Your nickname's gonna be Yellowstone soon. Okay, so random. Anyway, so, all right, so that's an amazing story. Right. Usually the lottery guys though eventually like spend it all become super depressed and stuff. Did any of that happen? You know, most winners, right, go through, I think it's like five to seven years between they go through all their winnings and they've kind of lost everything. Look, this is why I thank God for my education and that's when I really say I really won the lottery because I think it's kind of allowed us to take an educational approach about how we do this and make sure that.

that we do everything with a purpose and try to be, I don't wanna say frugal, but you know, we don't overextend ourselves or do more than we can, right? And we are careful with our winnings and make sure that we don't take risky chances with it. And that's allowed us to kind of be able to kind of do that and kind of continue to, you know, live, right?

Live to enjoy the fruits of our labor, as we would say, but the labor was the lottery winnings. So man, that is just the best meal you ever got. I am stuck on the fact that it was at a restaurant. Anyways, I'm gonna get to politics in a second, but you got kids? I do. I have twin boys, 11 years old.

Oh, they're 11 now. Yeah. Oh, okay. So are you worried about them getting spoiled because, you know, the money now? Are you guys super careful about that? You know, we just told them last year. Oh, yeah, that makes sense.

Because, I mean, you wouldn't tell him three-year-old and seven-year-old. Right. And it was something that, you know, they were starting to hear from their friends, right? Because, you know, now everybody can get on Google and they're at that age now where they can look things up and see things. Believe me, I know. Yeah. And so we just kind of really shared the story with them. But, you know, they're good kids, right? And they are actually kind of, I will say, cautious of that too, right? And I think we brought them up the same way. They don't, you know, they save their money. They don't assume they're going to get anything. you know believe it or not they actually like to fly coach and kind of that is hard to believe yeah because if I won the lottery the very first thing I would do is never fly coach again right because I've phone coach way too many times in my life no no I got the battle scars

yeah but but they you know they take that stuff into consideration and they do it right and so we're very proud and how they their approach to it right and they don't kind of make like oh yeah we won the lottery and it's like yeah they're not like that at all all right That's awesome. Okay, can I ask you, how old are you? I am 54. 54, so you got started late like I did. Yeah, with kids, yes, yeah, right. Did you get started after the lottery or before the lottery?

It was after, so we even, that was- Were you like, oh, that's it, man, we're making kids, we got enough money. Well, you know, it was a process for us, right? You know, we needed, I'm not ashamed to kind of say it, right? But we needed science to kind of help us out, right? So- Wow, bless science. I think we had the boys about four years after everything after the lottery had happened. Yeah, but yeah, okay, that makes sense, you were trying all along.

Right, right, okay, yeah. Okay, so now what it pops into your head to run for Congress at that point? Because look, at that point, you already won the lottery. I mean, you could spend the rest of your life in Bahamas, help some kids, et cetera, but like, you don't have to do anything. You know, I think it was 2016, I think a lot of people, you know, after the election this time around, are kind of angry and they want change. And I think in 2016, I was the same way. I was like, how did this happen? How did we let this guy get elected?

What are Democrats doing wrong? What more could I do? And, you know, the more I became, you know, well, maybe I can run for Congress. Maybe I can get involved. And, you know, look, I, when I say the lottery was life changing, right, it changed thing in many different ways. And we started to get involved in politics more, right? You know, had the opportunity to do that, to meet more members of Congress and what they were doing. And kind of built some relationships that way and friendships through that.

And so I kind of talked to a couple of them and picked their brain and kind of thought, like, what would you think of by them? What do you think of about me running? And so a couple more, you know, so I'm asked why. You know, are you sure you really want to do this? And so we're like, yeah, we think you, we think you'd be good, you know, we could use you. And so that's kind of what led me to run there in 2016 for the first time. I mean, that was in 2016 after 2016 election. I ran in 2018, the first time around, it did not win my reelection in 2020.

We flipped the red, the blue seat there that covered parts of Orange, LA and San Bernardino County. But I ran again here four years later after spending four years in the administration at the Department of Defense as an Undersecretary of Defense and then decided to leave there so I could run again in 2024. Okay, so I'm going to get back to that timeline for in a sec, but keeping it a real without the money, you couldn't have run, right? It could have, but you know, it helped, right? It definitely, it definitely helped, you know, a lot of it was self-funded, you know, when we ran the first time, you know, it actually became one of the most expensive races. Actually, I think it probably still is probably the most expensive congressional race that there ever was in 2018. Wow. Yeah.

So let me get this right. You lost in 2016. No, no, I didn't, 2016 was when I made the decision. Oh, right, right, right. do more. Yeah, that's right. So you win the first election in 2018. Right. Right. So then you get unseated in 2020 because it's a tough purple district. Right. Right. Or red to purple kind of district, right? Then is there redistricting in 2020? Yes. So 2020 became the new district lines. Yeah. Right. So then you run again in 24. In 24 and you won again. So now this is your second time around in conference. Right. Right. And in between, did you always know you wanted to run? run again or? I did not think I would run again. I was actually happy, you know, at the

Pentagon doing what I was doing. And I had thought I would finish that up. I would do, you know, the 24, after the 24 election, then we'll kind of see what happens next. But, you know, some people approached me. Grace Apolitano was going to retire. And so, you know, they said, hey, we think you should run again if you're thinking about it. And I actually was like, actually, I'm not thinking about it, but I think they kind of planted the seed and people again encouraged me and said you should do this. And I did. So I left my job at the Pentagon so I could go and run again and was able to win this time around. So that means you've both won and lost in a purple district, right? Yeah. One lost one. Yeah. This district is a lot bluer now. This one's more blue. Right. Okay. So but you did win and lose in a purple district. So were you able to ascertain? Why? Why win one time and lose another time? What was a difference maker in the same district? You know, I've kind of thought about that for, I haven't thought about it actually for a long time, but I, you know, I think there were things, right? And I told people, look, I am who I am. This is what I stand for. And you can either like me or, you know, choose not to support me again, right? And I think a lot of people did support. me did right but I you know I came out for the impeachment which I did not think

helped me in my in my district and you know there was one guy who actually said God you know he thanked me for helping me out with his VA issues and it was like I just wish you were a Republican so I could vote for you now that person just already made up his mind that he was just going to vote Republican and and we were kind of worried and we talked about this, right? It's that in that district, you know, people were tired of Trump. They wanted to get rid of them. But there was almost kind of like, but we want to keep the check in place. And so we, you know, Biden did win the district in 20, but I lost the seat there. That's so interesting. So I lost by less, but it was about 1% that we lost by.

So do you think. So I think a lot of people are voting. for for Biden but they also made the decision wow of a Democrat here yeah yeah yeah I get it so I'm gonna get the current day in one second but last thing on that in your experience now having run a bunch of times and one and loss like I said is it do you think it's more local issues or do you think it's more national issues that make the difference like you know national tide versus oh no what's happening in the district I you know to me To me, I think it's a mixture of both, right?

I think what's going on in the district is important, and I really try to keep my focus on there, and that does help there. But I think there are times where national issues do kind of take over. And when things are really going on, and it's like the headlines or something big is going on, that really kind of influences, I think, people's decisions on how they vote, right? But I think economically, you know, economics always play a big role, right? And I think right now when you kind of think of 2020, the economy was not doing so good under Trump. And, you know, we're just going to vote out whoever's in office there, right?

And that probably kind of, that was a factor, you know, too, as well. And probably in 2018, to keep a check on Trump, right? So in that particular district. So that's it. Okay, now let's go to today. So your Democrats are in the minority, huge conversation. about, well, what should we do? You know, we've lost our way.

The polling is at 27% for the Democratic Party hasn't been that low in polling history. So first, are there conversations internally in the caucus, like all the time, some of the time, no time, where you guys get together and go, all right, who's got strategy? What are you saying? Plan A, plan B, et cetera, or no? I mean, there's conversations out there,

and there are things where people are getting there, and we are trying to connect with people, right? But everybody has to kind of manage their own district in the sense, too, right? Because what goes, you know, in a blue district is not going to go the same. You know, a blue district in New York is not going to be the same as a blue district in Texas or as a purple district, you know, somewhere else, right? Like in a southern state. And so you have to really kind of be focused on your thing there and what's going there

and really pay attention there and make sure you've got the pulse of your district. And again, right, I always kind of laugh when, you know, you hear these messages and then say, oh, when you go back, go get on local TV when you're back in your district. Nobody gives a damn about the congressman here, you know, you can't, that may work in Iowa, that may work in Louisiana, but in Los Angeles, where it's the second, you know, largest media market, they don't give a damn about their members of Congress, right? We're like, we're a dime a dozen over here. There's a lot of us.

And so it's not, it's not easy to kind of do that, right? To get the message out, et cetera, right. Okay, that makes sense. So, but I am, it is a little question, like, does the caucus ever get together? And for example, let's make up a hypothetical here. Hakeem Jeffrey says, hey, guys, this is the direction we think in leadership we should go. And then they provide space for someone else to raise their hand and go, well, I think maybe we should go in a different direction, right? Does that happen?

We have a, we have a caucus meeting every, every, every, every, every, every, Every one, I don't say every day, this time it'll be around Tuesday, next Tuesday is the flying day. So the caucus meeting will be in on Wednesday, but you know, it's usually either Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on what day we fly in. But yeah, you know, and those are open discussions, right, where people are allowed to kind of talk about what's going on and give their two cents and their thoughts about what we need to do and what changes need to be made. So yeah, there, there is a form for that. And do people ever brawled there or is this super polite? Like, no, I'm serious because like they're progressives and and the more conservative members really disagree on a bunch of things. I mean, I think they do.

They say they do publicly. So do they disagree internally? No, there's disagreement, right? But it's never ever that I've seen where it's come to like a brawl or anything. No, I don't mean physically, but like more like you're raised. voices, things like that. No, I don't think, I've never really seen that, right? I look, I think you'll hear about that like in the Republican caucuses, right?

Where they're kind of there, like, you know, people are getting up and they're shouting at each other and you need to get in line and to do this. And I have never, ever seen that in one of our meetings. But that doesn't mean people don't disagree and I think it is kind of polite in the way that we kind of do that, right? Look, you have the time, there's the caucus meeting where you bring that things. up. And then if you have disagreements or things like that, you can go and approach other members. You know, when you're usually the best time to do that is when you're all there on the floor for boats. And it's where you can talk about these things, right? Yeah. And one more, that's slightly more collegial. And then I'll ask about policy, which is, do you guys ever go bowling

together? Like, forget bowling, but seriously. Like, do people go out for, oh, hey, Susie, how are you doing? Let's go out for drinks or et cetera. Does that happen with some. regularity? It does, right? Some are organized. Some are just kind of like, hey, let's go, you know, why don't we go to the, we'll go to the Dem Club and go get a drink or let's go get dinner over here. But I mean, actually I'm going to a dinner on, I think the ninth. Yeah, well, I don't know, I got to check the count. But I'm going to a dinner. It's going to be a bunch of my freshman colleagues from the Dem side. I think Adam Schiff is going to join us. And, you know, it's a little more organized, but, you know, it is there, right, where you do that. And actually, we have. We had a good one where one of my, another one of my freshman colleagues, like, hosted a dinner at her apartment, her place last week. Okay, that's good, yeah, that's good, I like that. And you get to be a freshman all over again. Yeah, so that's fun.

I'm a red shirt freshman this time. Right shirt, there you go. Okay, so tell me what you think is the right direction for the Democratic Party. Look, I think we need to reconnect with people, right? And the thing that really kind of upsets me more is that I hear about all the things you hear is that when it comes to economic issues that, you know, people put more trust in the Republican Party and Donald Trump and the Republican Party than Democrats do. But you look at the last three Republican presidential administrations, they've all ended in financial chaos. And so why aren't we out there talking about that more? Why aren't we kind of saying like, you know, it's always taking Democrats to get the House back in order.

It always hasn't been pretty, but it's gotten done and we've done it, right? And so these are the things that we need to talk about. That's the message that we have to talk to working people to let them know that you've always been better off with us, you know. So two things about that. So one is messaging, one is substance. On the messaging part, I don't, I literally don't know why they can't get that message out. And that's what I'm curious to ask you about because, so for example, if I'm on a show and they start, some right winger starts telling me about how they like to balance budgets. I go, that nonsense.

They've never done it. The last Republican president to balance the budget was Dwight Eisenhower, right? And so all they do is massive tax cuts for the rich and a huge amount of the deficit, et cetera. So I know I've done it, it's easy. Why do I never see Democrats doing it on TV? Yeah, you know, it's something that's got to change, right? And we need to talk about this more. And we need to talk about the financial ruin that we are headed down with this current president,

just like how he led us towards financial ruin, you know, the last time around, right? He only wants to take credit for things that are going well and trying to pass. You know, we've had the worst quarter financially that we had in recent history that I can remember, right? that it's I think that anybody can remember and he's still trying to blame it on Joe Biden when it was him who let us down this way right but these are the things that we need to talk about and and we got to find the way to connect with people this this representative Jeffries are speaking well leader Jeffries I guess does he go all right look Gil I need you on KCal and and you know Susie I need you and at you know KGO and San Francisco and blah blah and let's go or does that

kind of coordination not happen? That, you know, that doesn't really happen. We have the, the DPCC, which is right, like our messaging arm, we're trying to get out there, right, that we have within the party. And they are kind of pushing, you know, hey, you know, here's the messaging that we should be, you know, these are the items that you're hitting, right? Oh, you're in the district, you should be great if you could do these events, you know, kind of focus like last time around, like, you know, it's like, oh, okay,

let's focus on Social Security and Medicare, right? Let's do events kind of focused on those issues, right? You know, get on TV, which always again, easy to say, not very hard, you know, very hard to do here in Los Angeles, right? Which is kind of, but this is one of the reasons why we're here now, right? This is the platform that, you know, people are going to to get their news from, right? They're coming out on social media, they're, they're watching podcast. And, you know, this is the turn that we have to make in order to connect with people.

Because, I mean, to be frank, right, the traditional media. kind of dying. Yep. And you got your own podcast, like I said earlier, I was on it, who then will come back to that in a sec. But so in terms of the direction, so the Republicans are bad at financial management and the management of the economy and the budget. And those are facts. I mean, Donald Trump added more to the deficit than any other president in U.S. history. That's a, that's a point I have not heard a single Democrat ever making media. I don't know why. It just drives me crazy they don't make that point, right? And it allows the Republicans seem like they're fiscally responsible when they're drunk sailors.

Right. No offense, I know you were in the Navy, okay, when it comes to the budget. But how about the Democrats? Because when they get into power, they said, we're gonna do this, this and this, and the general feeling, and my feeling is they don't. So paid family leaves at 84%. They never passed it. Joe Biden said he was gonna do minimum wage. He took it out of the first bill. He said he was gonna do public option, didn't even introduce. it. So aren't people right to be frustrated about Democrats? Yeah. I, you know, I think you're right, right? There is a frustration out there. And, you know, we're filling it right now. And I think we felt it, you know, in the presidential

election, obviously, right, that people didn't get what they were told, right? But, you know, things in Congress move very slowly. And, you know, we do need a minimum wage, right? And Joe Biden, he couldn't get it in the bill, but he was able to do it for federal workers. right so every employee that i had that worked for me we we raised their their minimum wage and kind of do it tries to do what you can he was able to do that through an executive order hopefully it stays that way um it doesn't get reverse by who yeah now that we're talking about it out loud i'm a little worried yeah yeah okay just don't say it in washington right okay but um you're right to give biden credit on that yeah but it's not that he couldn't get it down

He took it out of the bill. Yeah, well, it's, he was looking at the bigger picture, I think, right? And these are the things that we have to do. The infrastructure bill was massive, and it put a lot of people to work. The unions loved it, and then I remember, you know, one of the union guys was like, we've never had so much work before in our life, and that I can remember. And so that's kind of what he was looking at. That's what he was doing.

And it's just unfortunate, like you said, right? the sacrificial land for that kind of became the minimum wage in order to get the bigger bill done. Yeah, yeah. Well, okay, so I'm going to ask you a question. I don't know if you can answer or not, but like if there's a vote that's coming up on something like a higher minimum wage or anything along those lines, do donors come to you, National Restaurant Association or whoever and go, you better not, or a more subtle, sophisticated, nuanced way of saying, you better not. You know, I think, you know, people always kind of come to you with sides, right?

Like, hey, this is what I believe. This is what I believe. I will, I won't say the company here. I won't say, right. But, you know, AM radio is becoming a thing right now, right? And I've had some people say, like, do we still need this in the car? And I'm like, well, here's my thoughts on it, right? I actually think we do, right?

Because it can become, when emergencies happen, AM radios, you know, it's the frequency goes farther, you can, you can, that may be your only lifeline that you have, right? If something ever really did happen where communications kind of went down, AM radio may be your last, you know, way to connect. And so I think it is still important to have it in there. But, you know, to me, it's if people come at me with issues, I'm going to tell them, okay, I hear you, but here's what I think on the issue if they don't, you know, especially if it is different. And I'm going to vote the way that I feel that I need to vote, right? And the way that I feel that the people in the district that who elected me want me to vote.

Well, I want more on that. Again, I don't know if you can answer. But has there ever been a vote you had where the donor then took away the money afterwards because you didn't vote in their direction? No, but again, I will say this too. Right, most of my elections, actually the two have been self-funded. So it kind of makes it easier. It does kind of make it easier in that sense where I can kind of go and say like, hey, you know, yeah, I'm going to vote the way I want to vote, right?

I'm listening to the guy who did that. Yeah, yeah, no, you've got that luxury, which is great. So you signed the populist plank today, right? So, which is awesome. And it's a huge range of people that sign it, all the way from independence like Dan Osborne and Nebraska to progressives like Rokana, to yourself, et cetera. So that's got the six policy planks, you know, anti-war, money out of politics, paid family, leave, higher minimum wage, lower drug prices, lower housing prices.

So do you think that that's the right direction for the Democratic Party to focus on that kind of economic populism, the core democratic policy issues? Yeah, look, I think you're the plank that you have going forward, right? They're all issues that I think Democrats should be on board with. And I would be hard to find a Democrat that wouldn't agree with those issues. Well, that's nice to hear. Okay, that's great. So that's on t.com or populaceplank.com.

So, and I like that it's uniting people. But there are issues that don't unite people, right? So what's the sense in the caucus about culture wars, identity politics? And look, a lot of times it gets thrust on you from the Republicans. They'll do an attack or a bill against trans people or this people or that people. You know, they'll take, you know, people who have a legal right to stay here and send them to a dungeon in El Salvador. Then what are you going to do? You know, you got to fight back, et cetera.

But is there a feeling in the air in D.C., like, that's that stuff. didn't help us. We got to get away from that. You know, look, I, there's always going to be, I think, somebody who says, yeah, we need to stay away from that, right? That's just kind of like it's, it's like the Republicans are just throwing bait out there for us to kind of like attached to, and then they're just going to go off and say like, oh, that's all they care about. That's all they want to do. And there are people like that, but it is important, I think, to kind of just address these issues, right? I was a diversity and inclusion officer.

Diversity is very important to me. When I was at the Pentagon, I was a diversity inclusion officer. If you were still there, they would have fired you. Oh yeah, I would have gone. You know, and the fact is, it's a lot of those diversity issues that we were implementing were signed in the law

by Donald Trump. He has another thing nobody ever thought about. The position that he created, the position I had was created that he signed into law. And it was something that they did talk about right there. Esper talked about diversity in the military and how important it is and that we need it. But now it's, it's again, he's running away from that. But it is something that needs to be brought, you know, there and kind of brought up, right?

And kind of thrown back at him. And it's like, you know, everything you're undoing right now was actually done by you. Yeah, okay, so that's a good point. Even on some trans issues that were Trump was a guy who did it in the first place, right? Well, that one, he's never been on the right side there, I will say, right? He did always try and get transgender service members out, right? And he couldn't do it the first time around. Yeah.

And so the reason I said that, sorry to interrupt, is because that famous ad against Kamala Harris where that policy of giving undocumented trans detainees, free surgery, that actually existed in the Trump administration. They made it seem like, oh, he would never do that. But it actually was the, actually the policy in the Trump administration. So that's why I brought it up, right? Yeah. No, it is. But look, I think we need to defend people that are being attacked right now.

We need to stick up for them. So that needs to happen. But, you know, I think some people, we got to be cautious of going down that rabbit hole, too. I think of kind of being led there, it's kind of where it becomes, like you said, right? This was his policy, that's what he did to Harris administration, but they've attached this to us, right? Yeah, we can't, look, again, we need to defend, but we got to be cautious. Yeah, and so I look, I don't think it's that hard, but I get that some people have a difficult time drawing the lines. So somebody, they take someone who has a court has ordered to stay here and they ship them to a dungeon in El Salvador.

No, there's a court order. That's not close, right? And this is an identity politics. There's a freaking court order, right? And you're violating the Constitution when you don't listen to the courts and due process. You know, he couldn't answer the simple question, right? Is do you need to defend the Constitution? And he said, I don't know if that's my responsibility.

Yeah, yeah, it's definitely your responsibility. I mean, it's the first thing you said, right? After you said, state your name, you know, after you state your name, it's the next two lines are, you know, to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. And how could you not know? You said it, right? You took an oath to do it. Yeah, and look, I don't know how you feel about this, so I'll ask you. Like, for, there's 10 transgender athletes in the NCAAs, right?

It's 500,000 athletes overall. To me, that's not the hill to die on. And we're gonna have any opinion. And my opinion is that trans girls should be allowed to play in girls sports in high school, okay? Because I say, hey, you know what, I don't want you checking the genitals of any of the kids. That's crazy to me, right? And other people disagree. And I say, okay, we disagree, but we're gonna move on and we're gonna talk about other issues as well, right?

But some say no, this is the hill to die on. And if you don't think the professional sports should be league should be forced into having those women, then you're not a sufficiently left wing. What's your take on that? Look, I'm more concerned about the thousands of service members that are being forced out of the military right now. I agree with that, yeah. Because of, you know, let's face it, they're transgender, right?

And these are people who are performing and are doing their job. You know, we talked to a group of them just last week. You know, great fitness, you know, great fit reports, you know, fitness reports, right? And even their chain of command can't believe this is. going on that we're taking good people out who are doing good, you know, great at their jobs and performing well. I'm more concerned about that than I am. A hundred percent. Look, again, people can disagree with me. It's okay. I'm used to it. You don't have a constitutional right to play in the WNBA, but you do have a right to be treated

equally like every other citizen. And if you're willing to sign up for the military, something I wasn't willing to do, they're willing to risk their lives. Right. Then we should be thrilled to have them. Yeah, less than 1% makes this commitment of the nation's population in order to do that, right? And why would you kick, and this is an administration, the own Secretary of Defense, you know, claims that we are going to be about merit. Well, where's the merit in this, right? You're kicking good people out who are performing and doing their job well. Yeah, if they said, hey, we've got three or four people that are not performing,

here's the results, sorry, but you got to go. That's one thing. Right. It's another thing to say, I'm kicking you all out, whether you are or you aren't performing. Right, right? That becomes kind of a reverse DEI, right? Yeah. I don't really care if you're fit. I don't really care if you're serving it with commendations, perfectly, etc. I'm going to kick you out because of who you are. Exactly. See, that's the Republicans playing identity politics. It is. Yeah. Okay, so tell me about the podcast. Why do a podcast and what's it about?

You know, I think, you know, they told me, I gotta stop saying you think, right? But when I say, I think, it means I know. We needed to be able to connect with people. And like I said here, in the LA media market, it's just, it's tough. You know, you're, there's a bunch of members of Congress. There's a lot of stuff going on here. And so we wanted to do the podcasts as a way to kind of, to be able to connect with people, to talk about the issues, to kind of, you know,

Get me, help me get out there and to connect with people and let them know, like, you know, here's what we're talking about, right? Because people are like, why don't we ever see you on TV? Then why aren't we seeing you do this? I'm like, well, you know what, now you can go to my podcast. Now you can watch us there. There you can hear us talk about the issues and you can see where I kind of stand on the issues. So that's why I wanted to do it. And I've connected with some young kids that know a lot more about this than I do. And so they're kind of actually guiding me through the process. Yeah, they're doing a pretty good job too. They get you on social media, you know, and spreading the word.

All right. So by the way, if you want to see us together on Representative Cisneros's podcast, we also have that up on t.com slash press. Because whenever I do an outside show, I put that, we put that up on there. So you can check that out. And we'll put a link in the description box for your podcast so people can go to it directly. Right. So represents his numbers, I hope we get a chance to talk. You know, when votes come up and other issues come up, keep in touch and see the direction of the Democratic Party. Well, hey, thanks for having me. And please, yeah, definitely reach out, right? Anytime, any issue, anything that's going on in Washington, happy to give you my thoughts and what's going on there.

All right, perfect. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right, guys. We'll see you tomorrow. Thank you.