Hey, everybody. It's me, Sam Stein, managing editor at the Bullock. And today we are pleased to be joined by Senator Ruben Gallego of the great state of Arizona and my colleague, Lauren Egan, who is the author of the opposition newsletter, which traces how Democrats are trying to get out of the wilderness and back into power.

Senator, thanks so much for doing this. We're talking on a somber anniversary, January 6th.

It's been five years. We're hoping to get a question on that. But we initially booked you

because we wanted to talk about Venezuela and what's happening in the country.

You've been, your approaches have been interesting for a variety of reasons, but among them

is that you have direct combat experience.

You're a veteran of the Iraq war. And so you come at this from a different lens than a lot of lawmakers.

And I have a two-part question for you. One is just sort of how that experience has impacted your view of what we're doing in Venezuela.

I know they're different to a degree. But too,

I want to talk about the kind of democratic politics of this too, which is, I mean, I live

through it, obviously, and you served in it. But back then in 2002, 2003, it really felt like the

Democratic Party had this incredible vulnerability when it came to national security issues. And

a lot of them rushed to support the war effort because they felt it was politically

advantageous to do so.

I don't sense that same mindset now.

In fact, I kind of sense something dramatically different.

But I'm wondering if you can, if you feel that way as well,

or if you sense there is a different type of philosophy

when it comes to engagements overseas.

Maybe, you know, like for, that's a, try to answer.

But for me, it is personal first.

Like, you know, I was a young man, infantrymen,

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