House Democrats’ Long-Shot Plan to Dodge Disaster
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🗓️ 7 December 2021
⏱️ 22 minutes
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Summary
All signs point to rough congressional elections next year. What are House Democrats doing to hold their majority?
Guest: Rep. Sean Maloney (D-N.Y.), chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Can you hear me, Congressman? |
| 0:06.7 | Yes, I can hear you. |
| 0:07.9 | Oh, hey. How you doing? |
| 0:09.4 | Good. How are you? |
| 0:11.0 | I called up Congressman Sean Maloney because I wanted him to give it to me straight about the 2022 midterms. |
| 0:19.1 | Maloney represents New York when he's in the capital, but he's also got a |
| 0:23.0 | side hustle. He's the chair of the D-Triple-C. That's shorthand for the Democratic Congressional |
| 0:28.4 | Campaign Committee. So while you and I might worry about the midterms on an amateur basis, |
| 0:35.1 | Congressman Maloney, he is a pro. I hate to disappoint you. It's not like |
| 0:40.6 | Michael J. Fox in an episode of the American president, but we are focused like a laser beam on |
| 0:47.8 | having the right record to run on. And I think that because it's an ambitious and important agenda and it's taken some time to get it across the finish line, you know, we're paying a bit of a price in the messaging war. |
| 1:03.0 | I mean, earlier this year, I know that you went into this closed room meeting with some of your Democratic colleagues. |
| 1:08.8 | It was late July. |
| 1:10.5 | And you were kind of dark. |
| 1:12.3 | Like you were like, if we had the midterms right now, we'd lose the house. |
| 1:16.7 | Is that like how you do a pep talk? |
| 1:20.1 | Yeah, I don't know if it was a pep talk, but sometimes it's important to know the truth. |
| 1:26.7 | The truth is the midterms usually punish the truth. The truth is. |
| 1:28.2 | The midterms usually punish the people in power. |
| 1:31.7 | And the people in power are not doing so hot right now. |
| 1:34.7 | President Biden's approval rating has been heading in the wrong direction since September. |
| 1:39.0 | And Democrats expect redistricting is going to give congressional Republicans an edge. These are not a good set of |
... |
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