this is the Tom Hartman program congressman rocona is with us he is the vice

chair of the congressional progressive caucus he represents the 17th

district of california the silicon valley area in the u.s. house of representatives

his website is kana k.a. and at a dot house dot gov and his twitter handle is rep

rocona congressman kana welcome back great to have you with us i'm wondering what's at the top

of your mind today you know i was just reading today the article about how the

republicans are threatening to block either warring or senders from an administration and i

i really think we have to speak out and make sure that we push to have high profile

progresses in the cabinet it would be a disaster if we allow a McConnell veto over any high

profile progressive as this cabinet takes place because then it's forget getting a progressive

agenda you won't even get what Biden has committed to the task forces so a lot of progressives

are thinking about how do we make sure there is progressive representation in this administration

how do we do that well i think we have to make two things clear first i think we have to make

it clear that we have to take a fight to McConnell that we can't compromise and accommodate before

McConnell is forced to vote and so i would say with senders take it to a vote with warring take

it to a vote force these people on the record to be breaking on all norms and rejecting qualified

individual and their colleagues and same thing with our policies force McConnell to vote down a

fifteen dollar minimum wage force him to vote down expansion of medicare force him to vote down

policies of higher infrastructure and then what would be a mistake is to try to negotiate the

high closed doors on McConnell and just take up things for votes which McConnell agrees to i think

we have to be bold and really present McConnell as the obstacle with the bully pulpit of the white

house and the house leadership you know almost every day of the last eight or nine months of the

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