The Exchanges

Q Do you think that for that cream skimming, things like national interest waivers and O-one visas and EB-ones and EB-fives, do you think that those Are sufficient to accomplish the task of that, or it should be factored into the H-I-B program itself?

A I think there needs to be an H-I-B program. I don't, I don't think the national waiver and the, the other programs are, uh, are enough. A lot of times, you know, look how Sundar Pichai came or Satya came, who are now leading Google and Microsoft. They came, uh, they, they studied here, uh, and then they got, uh, an H-I-B. But I would also make it that you don't stay on an H-I-B indefinitely, that we move Towards a green card, which by the way, President Trump said on your show in your one of your episodes, he said, I'm going to make sure that we actually move folks quickly to a green card. That to me seems like a a win win because you're then not exploiting an individual. You're going to pay them the market wage as they have flexibility of moving. And at the same time, they're going to stay in the United States instead of going back to To China or, or to, to India. By the way, a lot of these companies that if you just limit H-Bs, they all have overseas, uh, a lot of the big companies have overseas headquarters. So they're going to just offshore the jobs instead of bringing the jobs here.

AI assessment note: “I don't think the national waiver and the, the other programs are, uh, are enough.”

Q Who do you think those are on the Democratic side?

A I think they're folks, they're folks like Andy Beshear, there's folks like Wes Moore. You know, whatever you think of the three people who are going to win in November, Mamdani, Abigail Spanberger, and Mikey Sherrill, you know one thing all three of those campaigns have in common? They don't spend a lot of time talking about Donald Trump. They're talking about their own vision Their own ideas about what they want to do for their city, their state, for the country and the world. And that's what politics should be about. The politics should be about, here's what my vision is. Here's my plan. Here's where I want to take the nation. By the way, Roe, you know, I don't agree with Roe on Medicare for all. I don't agree with him on where he thinks the tax rate should be. I don't agree with him on having the state play some role in building modern factories in Ohio and this thing he calls economic patriotism. I'm more libertarian. I'm for deregulation. He doesn't understand how you really grow the economy. That's, that's what we should be talking about. Uh, instead, it's just, you know, everyone's trying to see how they can curse in terms of being authentic, as if that makes you intelligent, right? I mean, it's, it's actually just the expression of emotion without a thought. And I, uh, I, I, I'm hoping that we'll have a more serious politics.

AI assessment note: “I think they're folks, they're folks like Andy Beshear, there's folks like Wes Moore.”

Q Well, Ro, how much do you think about it?

A Well, I think it's a huge issue. Let me give you two ways. I think we could actually, uh, reduce the deficit concretely. One is we we've got a defense budget, uh, you know, to, to, to, to, to, to Don's point about, look, it's a huge issue that we've got a defense budget. That's a trillion dollars. Now we've got the five prime contractors that make tons of money. I mean, Lockheed Martin has gotten 1.7 trillion dollars of cost overruns on the F-thirty fives. We've got to open that up, have defense innovation, have new technology companies bid on these projects so that we can reduce the costs so we can be more competitive. The other thing is AI.

AI assessment note: “I think it's a huge issue. Let me give you two ways.”

Q We're getting very tired of it. I am exhausted with the fact that neither side will stand down on censorship. Or on the law fair? What are your thoughts?

A Well, on censorship, I have a particularly strong record. When people say, what makes you a different kind of Democrat? I say free speech. And all these people who got outraged when Jimmy Kimmel was pulled down were silent often when Twitter was censoring the New York Post with Hunter Biden's laptop stories. And as you may remember, you've been very consistent. My email leaked. Uh, where I said that, no, you shouldn't be pulling down that story, and you shouldn't be having the New York Post take that down. And then I got criticized from my own side, even though I'm one of the strongest defenders of trans rights, and we may have disagreements over my stances, because I said that comedian who was arrested at Heathrow Airport for a transphobic post should not be arrested, that, that you should not be arrested for that. I got criticized from, from the left. So my point is then when I speak out and say, okay, Jimmy Kimmel shouldn't be pulled down and we shouldn't be canceling speech or going after left-wing groups, there's at least some credibility because I'm willing, uh, to say, look, our side has engaged in that kind of censorship as well, and it's wrong when either side has it. And I think our side would have a lot more credibility in going after Trump, even if they didn't do it back then, if we just acknowledged That we've got this speech problem on our side. It's easy to be fo…

AI assessment note: “our side has engaged in that kind of censorship as well, and it's wrong”

Q Party going forward? Is there a voice saying this is the plan or is it a little Game of Thrones right now? We're all wondering where are the Democrats? It feels like you went dark. And is that a strategy to just sort of let Trump have his moment? And then come back and be adversarial or, you know, state a new platform. What's going on inside the Democratic Party?

A I think crises are times for reform and renewal, and the reality is that this was a huge blow to the establishment of the party. People wanted a more competitive process. They want new voices. They want a new generation of leadership, and now that's going to emerge, and so you're seeing it happening in California with Dan Lurie winning in San Francisco for mayor, Matt Mahan winning in San Jose. You're seeing new people in Congress emerging, new governors emerging, and so I think that there's gonna be a lot of reflection. One of the things I've said is the Democrats need to spend as much time understanding why many Americans voted for Donald Trump as we do criticizing Donald Trump, and I think you're starting to see that happen.

AI assessment note: “I think that there's gonna be a lot of reflection.”

Q TikTok, uh, because they like the product or they make a living on it?

A Yeah, it's, first of all, it's the, the stories about people who make a living. I, there was one person, a content creator, her husband cheated on her abusive marriage. She leaves, she's got four kids, uh, two toddlers, uh, and two people around, two kids around five, and she's broke. She's in a hotel. Uh, she's staying in her best friend's, uh, living room for four months. And then she starts telling her story and now she's making 60, 70,000 dollars as a content creator. I could tell you 50 stories like this of people who are actually relying on this for their livelihood. Some people are making it, making, using it to make rent. And then you have the issue of free speech and, uh, just being able to express it. Now people say, what about China? Well, why don't you pass a broad, uh, broader law that says any interference by a foreign government in algorithms is going to be illegal and criminal.

AI assessment note: “first of all, it's the, the stories about people who make a living.”

Q crime, right? Everything from this, this young woman from Ukraine who was brutally murdered to this young woman The twenty-two-year-old who, who's killed as part of a home invasion. Her, her father gave this gripping testimony a few days ago. Where are the Democrats on this idea of keeping the streets safe And law and order through the lens of the social justice reforms you believe in as a progressive?

A So one of the things I say is that, uh, my district, and I don't say this to brag, I just say this to make a point, my district is actually one of the safest in America, right? When you look at Fremont, uh, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, and San Jose, they're all in the top 25 safe cities. And I say that's correlated with the fact that we have five trillion dollar companies, Apple, Google, Nvidia, Tesla and Broadcom. You wouldn't have the economic prosperity of Silicon Valley if you didn't have the safety of Silicon Valley, because you wouldn't have executives living there. You wouldn't have families living there. You wouldn't have people wanting to participate in the economy. So safety is essential if you believe in creating economic opportunity and economic mobility. And I think that there is a group of pragmatic mayors now, Dan Lurie, I would say in San Francisco, Matt Mahan, In San Jose, Raj Salwan in Fremont, who recognized that the pendulum had swung too far that, you know, I supported that ballot initiative that was on the ballot last last election that said, you know, if you if you are committing multiple crimes of smashing into Walgreens, then you're going to be charged that you can't just say, OK, yeah, we can keep smashing into Walgreens, committing, taking under a thousand dollars, and it's OK. I, I don't view that as being not progressive. I mean, progressives,…

AI assessment note: “that doesn't mean you excuse behavior that is wrong.”

Q or they didn't want him to run for president again. And now we have the same thing happen with Comey and they're literally picking the attorney generals and firing them and putting people in who've never actually even been in front of a grand jury just to get this, you know, revenge. And so it's, it's a pretty dark time. I think on the law front, what do you think?

A Yeah. Look, I, I don't want to relitigate Trump's action. I do think he did certain things like January six others that were blatantly illegal and unconstitutional. But I will say this, that whoever going forward for the party should be make a firm commitment that they're going to follow the law and not engage in vengeance and not engage in retribution. And it's sad to me that that that we've gotten to the state. I understand Trump feels like, OK, he won a second term. He was spared from assassination. He had everyone against him and, and he's going to get the people who he, he feels he was wronged by. But it's a, it's a horrible thing for the country. And we've got to, we've got to make, make it clear that, that we're going to move past this chapter. Not that, okay, now we're going to, uh, Democrats are going to come in and we're going to go after, uh, everyone on their side. I mean, then we're no different than any other country.

AI assessment note: “whoever going forward for the party should be make a firm commitment”

Q be thinking to yourself, my God, Biden could have done that at any time. He could have summoned everybody and said, Hey, come, let's talk about your issues. But instead the industry was vilified. So if you, I don't want to spend too much time on it, but what's, what's your diagnosis of how that happened? And then how does the democratic party win back technology and leaders and billionaires?

A I do joke that I think the tech industry has become the new, uh, new, new aristocracy. I look at, I look at the white house, there they are, Sundar, Tim Cook and Satya and all the group. And then, then the king of, England, King Charles, there they are or something. So it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a group that obviously has a lot of stature and respect. And I guess here was my point to the Biden administration that they didn't agree with or they ignored. I said, you're, you're making a mistake if you think that getting Silicon Valley folks on your side is about the money, because they would always say, oh, Biden's going to raise all this money. We don't need Need the Valley's money. I said, yeah, you're going to raise all the money, and they did. They raised tons of money. Kamala Harris raised tons of money. I said, that's not what it's about. It's about culture. I said, you, you, there are a lot of young people in America who admire these entrepreneurs, who listen to All In, who want to build wealth, who want to build the next generation of wealth. By the way, all crypto is, why are there so many young black and Latino folks who care about crypto? Because Frankly, it's the closest they often they're going to get to a friends and family round in technology that we've got to expand economic opportunities so they have more options. But there are a lot of people who want to have a…

AI assessment note: “you're making a mistake if you think that getting Silicon Valley folks on your side is about the money”

Q What about the concept of reciprocity? Would you be, uh, in favor of requiring that we have our social networks in China if they want to have theirs here?

A I would be in favor of us pushing for our social media networks to be there just because of free speech, but I would not allow the Chinese Communist Party to be controlling any social media app or having any influence, whether it's on TikTok or whether it's on, uh, any other app. I don't want to name another app because I don't want to malign other apps, uh, uh, incorrectly, but they pass a law that says it's a criminal offense if an executive in this country is found collaborating or overseeing any app That has any influence in the algorithms by the Chinese Communist Party, or if our data goes to the, in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party, you could, you could have a law while still keeping TikTok operational.

AI assessment note: “I would be in favor of us pushing for our social media networks to be there”

Q you make sure that you have the resources so that you have effectively infinite optionality abroad. That makes sense to me. So I'm just curious, what is the opposite of the economic patriotism that Trump offers that you've seen expressed In other countries, right? The Chinese, I think, is very fair to say had their own view of economic patriotism. And why is the opposite of that a better model?

A Well, economic patriotism is my platform. That's why Bannon says, you know, watch out for this kind of guy. I've been talking about and writing about economic patriotism for years. I would say, let me talk about why it's different, uh, from, from where Trump is, and it gets to partly your point. I, I, I think, fine, he listens, but he's not listening, uh, enough, uh, to people saying, well, the tariff policy. Is not going to get a, get us to, uh, economic development. He's not listening enough, in my view, to people who are saying that you can't just take a sledgehammer to universities and research, that that's not going to help build the economy of this country. Uh, he's not listening enough, uh, to people who are saying, don't, don't just have all this vetting and, uh, for international students and, and don't, don't insult immigrants coming to the United States that we do need immigrants. Now, I, I agree that he, Gave some of those answers and, and, and all in, but overall, uh, there hasn't been the same understanding and case for the role of immigrants in the community. What I believe is we need a Marshall Plan for America, and I wish that we had a White House Economic Council. I did this bill with Marco Rubio that actually looks at Johnstown, that looks at Warren, Ohio, that looks at Milwaukee, and that says not only advanced manufacturing, we, we should put tech jobs, the…

AI assessment note: “let me talk about why it's different, uh, from, from where Trump is”

Q Is he, is he the, is he the candidate of giveaways, or is he the candidate of where we realistically need to be in order to have stability?

A I think he's a candidate that is sounding the five alarm fire on affordability and the loss of the American dream. How he governs is, I think, going to be a challenge, and I hope that he, he's a very talented guy. I hope he says, okay, look, I'm going to sit down as I am with business leaders and other leaders and say, help me achieve my goals. Like, okay, I want to have a rent freeze on the apartments that are controlled by New York, but I also want to make sure we're doubling housing construction and building new housing and How do we do that? I want to make sure that if I am increasing taxes, that, that there's not capital flight from New York City.

AI assessment note: “I think he's a candidate that is sounding the five alarm fire on affordability”

Q And this whole thing about if we disagree, the policy generally is wrong, which is, I think, this distinct distinguishing the policy from the party. Um, Do you think California has a chance of electing a Republican governor in 26? Do you think that that chance is now greater than 50% after the wildfires?

A I still think, and I will, uh, support most likely the Democrat. I mean, whoever the good, a good Democrat is, there are a lot of good Democrats, uh, that can run. But, you know, I mean, Arnold Schwarzenegger was a Republican, and can a Republican who is a pro-choice and take some of the social issues off the table be competitive? Yeah, I think the Democratic Party would be naive, uh, to take that for granted. And we need to have, uh, thoughtful, strong people on our side run, and run understanding people Care about public safety. They want effective government. They want, uh, reform. I mean, people like Matt Mahan, uh, who now have had a couple years and have been effective, uh, are, are the type of Democrats I think that can win statewide.

AI assessment note: “can a Republican who is a pro-choice... be competitive? Yeah”

Q And you're gonna have to take your family with you. Would an easier solution to be to just charge 10% of the salary into a pool as a tax so people don't abuse it, the salaries go up, have a minimum salary, and give them maybe a year to find another job. What do you think of that?

A I think that type of a solution is reasonable and have them be paid well. I mean, this idea that they're being abused, you know, put a floor or have it be the prioritized based on the, the highest wages. Cause that's a reflective of, uh, talent coming in. Uh, but you know, you don't want a situation like now where you're on a H one for three years, then you get it extended, uh, because you apply for a green card to six years. And then while your green card application is in process, it keeps getting extended. So these folks are here, And, and, and, and the abuse of it. And, and my view is, you know, I think the American people are pretty decent and fair. I grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It was 95, 98% white. It was a few Indian American families. And I grew up with a belief that you could do anything in America.

AI assessment note: “I think that type of a solution is reasonable and have them be paid well.”

Q bill to try to get these things in. Somehow the blob just comes in and then nothing changes. That's actually why nothing really productive can happen sometimes. If you want to build the right thing, it's just not possible. And I, what I want to understand is how much of that regulatory creep has just been independent of Democrats and Republicans, and what do you do to pull it back?

A Well, look, I, I, I am for A version of permitting reform. I didn't, I don't agree with all the mansions. I didn't agree with the mountain valley pipeline and the willow oil drilling projects. I want to be transparent and not just say to the, to you what you may want to hear. But I, I do think we need permitting reform. We need permitting reform on the semiconductor bill, the chips bill, to make sure that those factories actually are getting built for nationally important projects. We need it for solar wind and for, ah, clean infrastructure. But I think it is a red hair. We need it for housing in this, in this state. I mean, talk about one of the biggest regulatory captures is that we aren't building enough housing in California because of restrictive zoning laws. But I think it is, it's not sufficient to just say we lost our industry because we didn't have permitting. I mean, like we, that's not why we lost steel. We lost steel. We lost aluminum. We lost paper. We lost textile because we didn't care. We said, Let those jobs go to where it would be cheaper. It doesn't matter. People can go get other jobs, and the government has to finance, and this is where, ah, I am a Democrat. If you look at what built America, it was Hamilton, and it was Roosevelt, and it was Roosevelt after, during World War II. It wasn't just the New Deal. Unemployment at the, until 1940 was at about 15%, …

AI assessment note: “I do think we need permitting reform. We need permitting reform on the semiconductor bill”

Q older individuals in that age spectrum now, either one could be president, definitely will be in the eighties. What do we do as a democracy to make sure that there is this check and balance? How does that happen? When there could be people that are sort of in the shadows directing things of an 85 year old that is less probabilistically likely of a 55 year old, let's say.

A Well, the answer to that is active democracy. I don't want to embarrass the audience, but how many people here have knocked on more than, uh, 500 doors on a political campaign? How many, how many people here have Hosted events for candidates. How many people here have, ah, had encouraged friends to run for office? You know, I, I just think that a large part of the group of Americans who are upset or dissatisfied are not engaged in the political process. And, you know, that to be, Plato said, the price of not being engaged in politics, it will be ruled by worse people. And so the, the reality is that if you want to have Younger people engage. If you want to have new voices, you've got to realize there's a huge power establishment, and we've got to get active, and be much more involved, and then be strategic. The amount of people, it's mind-boggling to me. You have, like, the most brilliant business leaders who will obsess about every part of a business plan, and think about, like, what it takes to make a successful company, and then they'll be like, oh, let's just run this guy for president, and he's going to connect, What about the infrastructure in Iowa and New Hampshire and what it takes to win? There's no business plan. Like, you, it, being in politics, to lead the free world is the hardest possible job to get in the world. It, requiring, requiring a winning presidential cam…

AI assessment note: “Well, the answer to that is active democracy.”