Rep. Casten Discusses Republican Meltdown on Capitol Hill

magma Mike just held a press conference moments ago he wants everybody to know there's always really

“been on toward activity on Capitol Hill always lots of marital affairs lots of this this is what”

magma Mike's talking about right now and think American people are saying what's going on with our health care American people saying what's going on with energy cause what's going on with this unlawful and catastrophic war in Iran and here's what magma Mike is doing defending his approach to ethics on the health here's a magma Mike said let's play there's there's always been on toward activity among political figures i mean going back to the to time immemorial right there's

always been marital infidelity there's always been despicable behavior it in it it occurs to us that it

may not have always been exposed and in his transparent is it is today because of the very active

press corps and let's go to magma republican congressman Lisa McLean at that same press conference here play this clip and it is crazy to sacrifice our national economic security for woke green new deal talking points so no energy prices aren't where any of us want them to be but energy policy is moving in the right direction because republicans are leading with common sense we screwed you all over you are all suffering American people we made

you promises we defrauded you but trust us it's moving in the right direction even though Donald Trump said that on day one things were going to be incredibly cheap it's going to be so amazing then we had magma republican congress member and the ogles on the hill bragging that with the american people are most proud about it's now the united states is a dominant predator and we are a predator across all landscapes home of the predators this is what he says

here play this clip this war the president told me it's close to ending but we don't know what's going to happen right now in Pakistan this afternoon yeah i mean you know we're the

“dominant predator really across all landscapes and i think that the president has done an excellent”

job as sending a message to the world but also Iran that we're done we're done with the war you know the exportation of terror and and look the Persian people have an opportunity to get their country back and so once this regime realizes recognizes that we're not going to stop until that happens the world is a better place i mean despite the fact that that's quite the opposite of what's happened they realize that Donald Trump's done Trump's board with his catastrophic war

in Iran and i think he just thinks he'll make social media posts all caps and that's going to do it the Iranians are going to say oh man did you see his new true social post and all of those caps and exclamation points meanwhile magamik johnson pushing a new initiative that i know the american people care about he dropped a new account the speaker johnson war room a new account drop over there while Donald Trump is talking about things the american people certainly care about

saying i've always been a big fan of tim cook and when he called me i said wow it's tim apple cook

exclamation point how big is that i was very impressed with myself to have the head of apple calling to kiss my ass i want to bring a democratic congressmembers shown caston right now congress member caston is truly an existential moment for our country and i don't say that in a hyperbolic way people are psychologically tortured by everything this trump regime has done and every day they come out there like what i shared with you there and it looks like the season that was so bad of the

apprentice and it can never even be aired that it's so dystopian and gross and weird except the reality is it's not parity it's real life and this is impacting so many people especially at the pump especially at home especially with the unlawful war especially with affordability what do you make of this moment especially when you see your colleagues aren't even say that but these magma republicans doing that i mean like there's a there's a very rational response i

have and i'm sure we'll get into it about you know what what a good policy would be to actually bring energy prices down why we haven't done it historically you know and and frankly some of that land is you know shared around is nonpartisan but before getting to that like there's i

“think it is it is hard for i think to explain to the people how juvenile this administration is”

but we can't normalize it we we go to you know what we'll go to classify briefings on Iran on Venezuela um we're the entirety of the briefing is a ton of classified information but it is

giving us like inordinate detail about the weapon where it was located and what time it came in

and from what direction and the troops who came down on a zip line like they were in a movie and and then when we ask questions what is the plan um what is the strategy what how do you define success the when you before you invaded Iran did you look at a map and see that there's

“the straight-of-form moves that oil flies through did you did you think maybe you should top up”

the strategic petroleum reserve beforehand um crickets the entirety of the thought process is the thought process that i had when i was a 12 year old boy and there was a firework store in town who would look the other way and give us an eighties and i could blow up some of my toys that i'd outgrown um i think about how my turn 13 or 14 it was like that's like a done immature kid stuff but that is how it helps us in rubio and indios view the role of the United States

and whether it's this catastrophic war whether it's energy policy whether it's the department of labor and of course we saw their labor secretary shop as derimer used to be a congresswoman from Oregon who changed all of her positions from being a purported moderate congressmember to a magga extremist trump sick event and then was apparently partying in vagus and all of these other you know ridiculous things that that were on earth i mean it's just deeply at at a level

before we'll get into energy policy but like it's deeply unserious across the board the behavior i mean to have the secretary of state at a UFC fight you know like doing like muscle signs or whatever at this bumping while there's uh negotiations taking place in those Islamabad Pakistan and has trump talks about triumphal arches or you know just just any of the just the behavior just not serious human beings at that level before we even get into is this good policy

“or is this not good policy yeah and and i i think i mean look i want this to be over yesterday”

but i think the collective project of building back is going to be longer than any of us want it to be i've i've had conversations with you know foreign um i i think still our allies i don't know but you know foreign partners of the united states who have said that they are now thinking about the united states with respect to intelligence sharing in the same way that they have long thought about the united states on climate change namely we trust you when democrats are in power

but we now have to wonder whether the information we provide with you will be safe when future republicans come into power and so we just have to treat you a little differently um and like think about how long it takes to restore that because it is very hard to make the case right now that trump isn't anomaly it's hard to make the case that he doesn't speak for the values of every

“elected republican washington when they're all battling it at him and it's very hard to make”

the case that a future republican president because once there will be another one who will that be who will actually comport themselves and i should have to say this who will comport themselves

with the dignity of George Bush the second much less George Bush the first right

you know and and going to you know domestic energy policy for example as you mentioned this should be bipartisan you know and when you looked at uh climate powers new energy crisis snapshot i don't view that i don't shouldn't be a democratic issue or republican issue should be an american issue we should want to be the leaders of the world of clean energy because not only does it help the environment it helps the economy and it can bring down inflation and when we have the

largest oil supply shock in history which by the way people are kind of pretending that that's not really happening right now like the straight of our moves is still closed why would we be attacking alternative forms of energy that bring down the prices and that's a major part of why inflation you know is now surging and then you hear what the response is from trump and maga yeah it'll get better in the future maybe twenty twenty seven twenty twenty eight just trust me bro trust me

there's has a guy who's spent twenty years in the clean energy industry um if i was still there i would love trump's uh foreign policy because it raises the price of of dirty or energy sources and makes it easier to so clean energy um and i would hate his his domestic policy because his domestic policy blocks companies from investing and precisely those technologies that would mitigate the adverse effects of his foreign policy like the climate power port you'd mentioned you know says

that we've lost a hundred and eighty thousand dollars a hundred and eight thousand jobs in the clean

energy sector and sixty two billion dollars of investment with a bee has gone away solely as a

under the headline of a climate power report because we then view that through the lens of well

“these are clean jobs those are democratic jobs in fact most of those jobs are in republican districts”

because everybody wants cheap energy right those jobs are being were being built because the things that america wants are things that means that you don't have to be exposed to all the prices at the pump you don't have to be exposed to all prices you know from electricity you don't have to be exposed to all natural gas costs if you've got a well insulated home and you know solar panels on the roof and you know maybe an electric vehicle in the driveway you don't

have to do that but let's give you access to those technologies and let's prioritize with them in the United States now we're not doing that you have seen a surge of investment by china and clean

energy um you know before Elon went crazy Tesla was the largest TV sailor in the world that was a

US company now BYD isn't the largest seller in the country um we were starting to build a domestic battery chain a domestic solar chain those those industries are now being disfavored by the Trump administration but the rest of the world would like to not be beholden to US energy policy and so they're not buying from china it is insane we are driving investment out of the United States driving jobs out of the United States all to benefit the tiny minority of americans

who make their money when the price of oil goes up when the price of gas goes up because they don't know well the overwhelming majority of Americans in fact every American benefits when the price of energy goes down why is it partisan to look out for them and why is it I mean is a question that we could probably spend hours talking about though is it that the you know but even when you speak with people in the oil lobby and and you speak to people even they now I mean in many times

recognize that there needs to be some diversification I mean trust me I mean they want to protect their you know they want the way of the past but even when you hear some things it's like even eight things sometimes it's going to extreme so you know but Trump talks about his hatred of windmills you know he is infatuated with his hatred of clean energy he lies and says that china isn't doing these things that they're doing and that they're dominating in the world now as a

result of it so what what's your diagnosis if is it just the strength of the lobby and the way things were in the past or what what what what what what is it the hold of it because this is jobs this is jobs in mega republican congress members districts regardless of if they're they're

“they're they're Trump's significance this is this should not be democrat republican well so I think”

and I think this is a place where I think we can all benefit for from some empathy after the inflation reduction act was passed I was part of the delegation that was at the

climate conference in Egypt and our first meeting was with with president cc of Egypt and

interestingly enough he was chastizing us for the inflation reduction act because he said that as a result of that bill lots of global capital was now flowing to the United States that used to flow to the global south and it was going to make it harder for you know you know folks like him to transition their economies and grow them and become part of the you know the first world and I said to him in response you were not going to apologize for investing in the United States but if you

stopped subsidizing your fossil fuel sector it would you would you would remove the distortion that keeps capital from flowing into your country and a lot of those dollars that are now flowing in the IRA you could you know you could be competing on the merits and his response was if I stopped subsidizing the fossil fuel sector I'm going to have huge numbers of unemployed young men and that is going to create a potent recruiting tool for the Muslim brotherhood

now we can view that as the cynical response of an Egyptian president and you know all the

“corruption of the Egyptian government or I think we can view that with some empathy and say what would”

happen if we really unlock cheap energy in the United States if we got the thousands of gigawatts of solar and wind and batteries that once that's sitting there waiting in the queue to be interconnected the grid and brought it online well that's going to make it a lot harder for cold plants to compete it's going to cause a lot of young men in Appalachian coal seams or you know the Bach and oil shale that John Thune represents or that you know the the LNG export

terminals that Mike Johnson represents it's going to cause a lot of those young men to lose their jobs and that is going to be a potent recruiting tool for the proud voice right so I think there is that understandable tension of when you have been so focused for so long on putting the interest of energy producers over the interest of energy consumers ripping that bandaid off

reason why we put all those additional incentives for energy transition communities let's you know

“let's let's make it more attractive to you know to build the battery plants you know where”

they're used to be at coal mine to create jobs for that community to help them bring the wall mark back into town and you know and you can see that in this climate power report the I got to see if I can find the right page but more than more than 50% of the projects that have been cut more than 50% of the jobs that have been lost have been in red parts of the country that's not because the Biden administration was saying I got to give this to my political opponents

it's because extract of America it's not synonymous but it rhymes with red America productive America is not synonymous but it rhymes with blue America and so if we're going to

really put consumer's first you know it's going to hurt places like Kentucky like West Virginia

like the Gulf Coast it's going to benefit places like New York and Chicago and California

“you know the places that really dominate our economy and we are all Americans right and if we're”

looking out to benefit all Americans that's going to be fine but the Republicans just can't get out of their own way what do we do right now I mean in this moment obviously Republicans control you know both chambers that may change in a little bit but what do you as you look forward more generally what's what's your I mean you know this area probably more than anybody you know on on the hill giving your background like what do you want the America people who are

watching this right now who see the chaos that I showed at the beginning of what Magra Republicans on there's a lot of distractions and sometimes energy policy is not top of mind although price at the pump is top of mind but thinking more holistically about making that connection so what do you say to people before we go so politically we've we've got a win the election the way when the election is by converting people you know I'm grateful for what you do and this

network does to to to make space for people who voted differently in the past but they can come back into the fold you know I you know I remind people all the time that if you love Ronald Reagan's immigration policy there's plenty of room for you in the Democratic party if you love George H.W. Bush's foreign policy there's plenty of room for you in the Democratic party you know you can you can you can hold if you love Richard Nixon's environmental policy there's

plenty of room for you all right so you can hold all of those Republican beliefs and come back

“in once we do that you know once we win I think you know we get the gables back we do oversight”

I think we have to have an energy policy that unambiguously puts the interests of consumers first and it's not it's not confused about whether that should be a priority of U.S. energy policy and and then I think we just need to keep well let me say outside of the political realm because you know most of your people listening are probably not elected officials um the cheapest forms of energy are the cleanest forms of energy and yes maybe you know our political environment federally

is doing less than it used to do but that just means everybody else has to step up um there is nobody who has a solar panel on the roof who regrets that economic decision because every day that the sun is shining that's a cheaper source of power you know there's nobody who has an electric vehicle in driveway who says man if the price of gasoline was a little lower or I'll probably

not be able to afford to drive my evie right those are those are always the cheaper technologies so

anything we can do in our homes and our schools and our businesses our communities to deploy that capital is going to give you an extremely attractive long-term asset and that's an investment for your own selfish interests it's also an investment in the United States and the U.S. economy. Congressman Caston thanks for joining us we appreciate you and taking us on this journey from what show at the beginning with magma mic to just some common sense policy which frankly

really shouldn't matter regardless of your political party we just we just got to be some we got to be smart as a nation we got to think through things again we got to plan and we got it we just got to be grown-ups we need to be adults of the room right now thanks for joining

us Congressman thanks for having me thank you everybody hit subscribe let's get to seven million

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