I'm Brian Lehrer. This is my daily politics podcast from WNYC Studios. It's Friday, November 12th.

We'll begin today with Congressman Richie Torres from the Bronx at this weird transitional

moment in national politics. Democrats got

wiped in the elections more than they hoped and are debating how to keep Congress in next year's

midterms. The president just declared inflation, a top priority for the first time. House Republican

leaders are not denouncing Republican Congressman Paul Gosar, who released

an animated video showing him stabbing President Biden and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,

but they are denouncing Republicans in Congress who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

That infrastructure bill could bring not just new construction, but

revisiting the harms of old construction, like the Cross Bronx Expressway, in Congressman Torres's

district. And it passed without being tied to the president's build-back better plan for

child care, elder care, universal pre-K, a few weeks of paid family leave, and more that Torres

and other House progressives wanted in the bargain. What the Democrats know is that they're

own, they're on their own on that one. Here's Republican Congresswoman Lauren Bobert of Colorado

on paid family leave. I'm a mother of four. I delivered one of my children in the front

seat of my truck because as a mom of four, we got things to do. And nobody got time for two

and a half months of maternity leave. We have a world to save here. Republican Congresswoman

Lauren Bobert of Colorado. Her Republican colleagues may not all put it that way, but they've announced their

intention to vote that way.

With us now is Congressman Richie Torres, Democrat from New York's 15th Congressional District

in the Bronx, covering the neighborhoods of, are you ready, in alphabetical order from

his website, Bathgate, Belmont, Claremont, Cawson Point, East Tremont, are you ready, in alphabetical order from his website?

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