hour interviews include delaware democratic congresswoman sarah mcbride, the first openly transgender member of congress. >> from those first moments after his diagnosis and he and i knew how lucky he was to have health insurance that allowed him to get care to hopefully save his life we both knew how lucky we were to have flexibility with our jobs that allow him to focus on full-time job trying to get better and me to focus on the full-time job of caring for him and loving him of marrying him and eventually when he found out his cancer was terminal to lock him to his passing i decided to run for office because i do not believe that in delaware our state of neighbors or here in the united states the wealthiest most about nation earth time 㦠>> watch new members of congress all this week starting at 9:30 p.m. eastern on c-span.

>> governors andy bashir of kentucky kevin state of oklahoma and jarrod polson colorado featured speakers of the political governors summit commenting on policy initiatives in their state in the first few weeks of the second trumpet administration will. >> good morning good morning my name is alina schneider i'm a national political reporter at politico welcome to the governors summit we are so thrilled you guys are here we are going to have some really excellent conversations this morning. joining you virtually this morning is democratic governor andy bashir of kentucky thank you for joining us this morning. >> good morning and thanks for having me. >> we've got a lot to cover in a short amount of time we will talk about tariffs and medicaid and of course politics because we are politico. first, you very understandably had to cancel your in person interview because of the

devastating floods that hit your state in the last few days i want to take a moment to let you talk about how kentucky is doing how the recovery is doing a little bit of an update.>> we've been hit hard and we been hit hard by natural disasters historic national disasters the last several years in 2021 we had the worst tornado disaster, 2022 worst flooding in history killed 45 people, right now were dealing with a flood and sandstorm on top of that the dust hundreds of kentuckians whose homes may not have been swept away but certainly had been ruined or have significant damage. we are once again in the situation where we gotta rebuild and march forward thankfully we have the power back on for most of the state gone from 40,000 connections out to less than a thousand which is really good news.

we are getting all of our water systems back up online and all of this was important because windchill is -2 -3 where i am today. mother nature hit us with a historic flood, and then historical but we are talking kentucky thankfully, people have rallied and rallied to help as has the rest of the country in the world we opened a fund to help our people first to pay for each funeral because what we do in kentucky is more and together with any family to be worried about that obligation while putting their loved one to rest. we appreciate everybody's help and that we hope that by the end of the weekend we will be out of the worst of it it's supposed to be about 50 degree on monday and that's going to feel bonnie to accept everything we've been through. >> president trump has said the

federal emergency management agency has "gotten in the way" referring to the california wildfires, the hurricane that hit north carolina, he's also suggested abolishing fema outright and having that states handle disaster relief and he made significant cuts already. as somebody was dealing with a disaster right now do you agree with his assessment that get rid of fema or the state should just handle it. >> fema needs a number of fixes and improvements this is the 13th federally declared disaster since i've been governor over five years. work with fema lot. when you think about a national disaster first you have a search and rescue the emergency phase. then you have geintermediate housing phase we have to find a safe place for people to be for a year or two years and then you have the rebuilding phase. fema is very good up first search and rescue phase they

surge and resources they bring in swift what about extra people to help in the lpcall centers there very good at surging resources at the point you need it most we made over 1000 boat rescues over 300 air rescue since it started and we couldn't have done that without fema's help. the challenges when you get into the later peace especially with individual assistance when you can get some relief for their loss. the system is overly complex too many people are turned on by a lot of that is what congress said to fema to put shackles and difficulties about how it's think about the math

the same group even if they are too tough the process the claims for all 50 states when a national disaster occurs fema goes away the requirements by congress stay. all 50 states would have to do the same process. that means overhead to do it with each state having to do it would eat up the dollars available for our people we thoughtful when something is needs to be fixed let's fix it. but certainly not break it. let's turn to washington and the decision that affects your state. even though the night before trump told fox news that

"medicare and medicaid none of that is going to be touched. how are you preparing for the possibility your state could see major cuts and do you think there's a real probability this could move through the house. >> i believe healthcare is a basic human right nobody should ever have to worry about being able to afford seeing their doctor or taking care of their parents to the next appointment. medicaid and expanded medicaid not only covered hundreds of thousands of kentuckians but also support healthcare history critical for our people without expanded medicaid and without a well-funded medicaid system level hospitals close. doctors and nurses and everyone else lose their jobs. will have to drive multiple hours to see their regular doctor much less a specialist. deserves healthcare.

they put all of that risk. my hope is certainly that every congressman or woman and every senator any state that has a rural healthcare system would stand up and stop this we are looking to make our workforce more productive if we want people aren't at work back to work the idea is to get them healthier not cut off their healthcare. >>. >> my current discussions are primarily on the national disaster thankfully our entire congressional delegation has come together to push for more assistance for kentucky let me just say the trump administration has worked really well with us thus far. as we move into the other issues first we are pushing to undo funds that are frozen. i've seen elon musk tech

interns or tech pros running around right now the freeze in effect or refusal to push money out stopping a project that's bringing clean drinking water to 961 homes in rector county. these actions require the people actually know what they are doing that they learn the people that they might hurt. kentucky eifert i think was the first state called for president trump won by 30 points yet a lot of these freezes and a lot of these actions hurt my people the most. when i stand up and speak out it's not because i'm a democratic governor it's because i'm the governor of the

commonwealth of kentucky and i pledge my people i would do my very best for them every day. >> let's move to tariffs as a topic you talk a lot about, trump has delayed his threats of tariffs against canada and but you ntil next month talked about it a lot, canada kentucky number one export partner, art trump tariffs going to affect what if anything can you yourself work around potentially work around the tariffs? >> it will be a challenge we will do everything we can but it n will hit us and it will hi us hard and it already is hitting the american people. we've set export records and back to back years canada is about 22 to 23 percent of all of our exports and we are not

alone as a state and those numbers. i believe donald trump ultimately ããthe last group of movable water stock would do more to bring down prices. we see threaten to tariffs and the ones put in effect raising the price of gas raising the price of groceries. if this president continues to focus on the culture war issues and ignores what's happening i our economy uses tariffs to try to get non- economic concessions that's gambling. i think the american people will end up feeling betrayed because they believe he was less distracted and will do more about what we see thus far is he's doing everything but address prices. >> have you given everything that's going on in your state with the floods communicating on doge, have you been able to speak to the president directly

about any of ththese concerns? >> i haven't seen a correct conversation directly with the president i'm hoping to be in dc tomorrow for the governors meeting with the president. i certainly want to engage him and the administration on anything we agree on.that's my job. where we agree and it helps kentucky to be supportive but to stand up one policies would hurt my state. ãas being the best governor of kentucky i could be. >> since you raise the idea of working with the president that was a question i had is an ongoing debate in washington whether work with trump versus when to resist him i've been thinking about this to date and particularly in the context of immigration, we know voters in 2024 were deeply concerned about illegal immigration last month you said you had not received requests for assistance from federal immigration authorities n yet b you would "evaluate anything and everything a potential

request. is immigration enforcement area you think democrats should work with trump and berepublicans in this moment? >> i believe border security is national security. under both president trump's first time and president biden will answer the call and provided national guard on the federal mission to the border where they served honorably. we have not received any requests to assist on immigration but understand those requests could run just a huge sloth of what is otherwise speculation. there is a request to find a fugitive a violent criminal that we would certainly otherwise be pursuing. that is uisomething we would certainly help with and we do on a regular basis. my two biggest concerns, if and when asked, this is chaired by even some of our biggest supporters is first a suregular law enforcement or guard do not have specific training that i.c.e. agents get on ããi believe

it's about a two month course to get this is a very specific area of law. there's a concern there the second concern is legal liability. whether they are covered by federal agents if there is an issue. you can look at the third scenario that set up the immigration officers are to do something this is a black and white issue or white issue is something that we have to look at and analyze as any requests come in. >> based on politico's reporting we know the trump administration is not just targeting migrants who have committed crime the white house has said they consider anyone who has crossed the border

illegally as a criminal, are there any redlines for you when it comes to immigration? if they were trying to access a school or church to move there with thanks are there redlines in terms of deportations and what trump is trying to do as it relates to immigration. my hope is that even in this push the trump administration is making that each individual operation is evaluated for its safety of both the officers and agents involved but also the broader community around it. that takes some thought about where and when the operations

occur. >> let's turn to politics for a moment. after the 2024 election you wrote an s op-ed in the new yor times where you said "the focus of the democratic party must return to creating better jobs more affordable and accessible healthcare safer bridges and roads, the best education where people are just safer but also feel safer. i can imagine i find joe biden or kamala harris reading that essay wildly gesticulating at their record saying the ira pumping billions and millions into infrastructure projects, capping the cost for influence for seniors, i don't want you to look backwards, but i'm curious, given what harris and biden have to run on 2024 and yet still the results that we saw what must democrats do differently to execute on what you said in the op-ed.

like i said in the op-ed, american families wake up worried about their job and doctors appointments and roads and bridges they drive each day, the public school they drop their kids at and whether they feel safe in their community if you can't thsatisf those needs as much as you care about that next issue, you can't get to it and the candidate you believe will help you pay the bill at the end of the month then you might lean toward the candidate even if you disagree with them on a lot of other things stop i think with the democratic party i hope everybody needs to do first is spend 80% of your time there was a way you govern they need to see feel and touch

these things the advancements in their life. when i started my em2023 electi year later donald trump would win by 30 points i recognize while we had the best two years for economic development those jobs are gonna take a little bit longer to come online. i made sure what i talked about a growing economy i was standing in front of the largest replant on planet earth that we were building. that's not signing something in the rose garden that is the actual tangible results and something i think people get wrong they laugh about ribbon cuttings but if you look at an announcement, that's the hope, groundbreaking is the progress but ribbon cutting is the reality. there's a town called henderson, formerly a coal mining town in western kentucky i barely won in 2019 we were able to thanks to investment my prep paper the cleanest greenest recycle paper mill in the world 350 jobs spanning

almost $40 an hour. the ribbon-cutting was something. 350 my fellow kentuckians having really good jobs we ended up winning henderson by double digits. when people believe you are actually improving their lives and they see it and feel it that will change the way they vote. you've got to get dirt on your boots. get out there and show people what you're doing, talk to them in their own community then we got to talk to people like real human beings. sanitize different language so significantly that people don't feel like we are talking to them. that's everything from us now using terms like substance use disorder when somebody is going through it even calling it addiction or now the idea of justice involve edpopulations folks in prisons and jails where we work really hard to reduce recidivism to place people in jobs, those terms to

everybody else out there it's hard to communicate when you're not using the normal language. >> are you saying it was more about the messengers them may be the message itself? >> i think some of the programs i think president biden would say with this and was frustrated, it took too long to get out there. it took too long to get the actual jobs up and running. i think because of the pandemic and other issues he wasn't able to get out as much and show his work. things that happened under the bipartisan infrastructure law or the ira they were still there why were they there because they were showing progress in their communities. i think it's really important as democrats we remind people the why why something happened also show them the tangible piece. if i could add on to the last

answer. communicating the why had somebody the next day said governor might not agree with you but i know you're doing what do you think is right gives people the grace and space to disagree but still support. >> you are saying that for somebody who shows up everywhere you had angie allie with the fireside chats a pandemic you said you loved ribbon-cutting's groundbreaking's do you think other democrats are afraid to go to uncomfortable places to read areas do you g worry about the indemocratic party not doin enough about not showing all we

had a program on the last election it's okay to go somewhere that's not a flip flip it's okay to go for me these are my people. the reason i go oisn't elector strategy is because i'm governor of kentucky and i owe them just as much as anybody else. we've got to be everywhere in america we got to go where working folks are when you bring success to different parts especially when you bring success to a place may be the people to vote for you start thinking maybe this is all a little bit bigger than politics. which it is. we get caught up in the back and forth, particularly good government is good politics. my hope is that after what we are going through we can get a lot closer to focusing on those five key areas.

that's where we can apply common sense and make progress and d lower the temperature of this country. i think people are exhausted about the constant back and forth. >> you won second term as governor in 2023. 37 years old do you want to stay in politics after your term as governor ends. >>. >> i give two years to get the best for my people. i love this country. i hate to see how divided it is. i have my dad about 13 and 14-year-old believe the current state of our country and have

stated politics to my kids, i think we have a duty to fix the problems that arose during our lifetimes. if there is an ability or another opportunity to do that it is something i would consider because my kids and everybody's kids and grandkids they deserve a lot better than what we are seeing right now it sounds like we are going to stay in close touch as you consider all those things. we really appreciate this conversation and the thoughtfulness you brought to the answers and with that we are out of time, thank you governor for your time and next up we will have oklahoma governor with politico state reporter liz crampton. [applause]

>> oklahoma governor, thank you for being here, let's get into it. all everyone has been talking about in dc lately is elon musk and doge you said you been doge before his call and lost your own version of doge commission oklahoma to cut funding costs. you clearly support the mission of this initiative. with thousands of federal employees on work some who were doing critical work like

wildfire invention, researching infectious diseases, and discussions of shuttering entire agencies like department of ed, do you have concerns about doge going too far and eliminating parts of government that could negatively impact your residence do you have concerns about collateral damage. >> thank you so much for having me here. i applaud president trump and elon for we are spending $2 trillion over income that's unsustainable. congress has a tough job because ovi know there's a lot great programs out there and a lot of great needs but in my opinion states already have balanced-budget we have to look at our spending. do you borrow $20,000 on your credit card at the end of the year to get to humanitarian effort? of course you don't we get niou of the abundance.of all the spending were doing

around the world somebody should be looking at. i think it's the big picture most people in america think about 40% of our dollars come to our states come from the federal fegovernment. if were going to be cutting spending if were going to have reduction of federal dollars coming the states and essay how the money is spent. the way we look at it is the federal government whatever agency we would prefer more block grants and more ability to spend the money the way we

think ilwe can work more efficiently than wash through the federal bureaucracy. >> i will like to talk about the federal utfunding freeze. there have been reports of some farmers throughout the country not receiving usda grants. they come to rely on for the operation. farming is so critical oklahoma i think it's our number two number three industry. from a business perspective working to figure it out let's figure out the rules of the game we believe we should be subsidizing every single thing. we have to look at the balanced-budget the overall effort we need to get to.

you guys know better than i do from the federal lever the continuing resolution so don't think our founding fathers even envisioned a time when congress would not be doing their core functions of how much we should be spending and negotiating. farming is important but so is apparently all the stuff that usaa does and when you move someone's cheese everybody's complaining about it. in our opinion the president has the right to look at the spending and say is that really a core mission of the federal government especially when we have the borrow so much money to do it. >> you have spearheaded clean energy boom in oklahoma an interview just this week with politico you called for the

trump administration to honor the clean energy contracts signed by the biden administration. auto follow-up and appoint from my colleague you said you intend to discuss trump's call to repeal ira when text credits have you had the conversation yet? >> when you think about that's basically what i said. >> have you discussed concerns about the tax credits and ending with or potential repeal of ira funds with republican governors who also have benefited from clean energy and

ev is there a future republican governor when caucus? >> oklahoma we are like number three in the country we have the most affordable reliable energy anywhere in the country. it has a lot to do with our cleanburning natural gas. i think the problem most americans are widely icborrowed trillions of dollars and pick this industry over this industry. when you're picking winners and losers and incentivizing the industries that's where we have the problem with it. the people i talked to in oklahoma want to take their kids to piano lessons soccer

practice and heat their homes and businesses we e want portab groceries when we go to the grocery store. energy has a lot to do with that the biden administration by ban putting the plaza lng exports that hurts our allies around the world more than anything. the backup and think what are we doing? we believe in a free market and whether that's when the development or solar development or more natural gas i think we have to get government out of the way and allow private business to meet the needs of americans. >> moving to immigration. just last week you stop the plan requiring that children reveal their immigration status. can you explain your decision-making. >> to me that was common sense. i never ran for office i was a

businessman and decided to run most people in the political world don't want to touch the issue 'sis like a hot potato. with my research they were talking about this 50 years ago ragan was running for president these issues have not gone away. i applaud president trump for making masure we are closing th southern border we know who's coming in our country i think he did that day one in office and we have over 90% fewer interactions of the southern border we did even a year ago. i applaud that. we are not going to little six-year-old seven-year-old eight-year-old is not a public safety issue. i put a stop to that organ educate kids in oklahoma there is a bigger issue that organ to

make sure we know who's coming to our country but i've been a proponent for governors having more authority on workforce visas is common sense to me to match employers with employees whether engineering construction agriculture if you want to chase the american dream pay taxes do what's right the evidentiary let's give them a contract to work. let's make sure if you are not going to work if you get a break the law we don't want you here were not to give people free services that's the common sense the way i look at the immigration issue i think most americans agree with me on that. >> does this mean you oppose the president's action allowing i.c.e. agents to make arrests

in schools and churches. >> i don't think that's what he said he just change the rule, biden said that was absolutely off limits so he changed the rules to say, nothing is off limits. if they're going after a bad guy and a school that's not to be safe haven so to speak. i don't believe the president is wanting to go after school kids i think he wants to make a statement. we are to make sure we get the criminal element out of the country. we are people in prison in th oklahoma who have done some bad things who are illegals we set up operation guardian to work with president trump to say that shouldn't be footed by the oklahoma taxpayers and to get the criminal activity out of our state. >> context about that superintendent. do you have thoughts on what do you think.

>> two announcements or two other folks to run on keeping my eye on it i will be coming out trying to promote the ones i think will carry on the conservative common sense pro-business agenda that i've done over the last six years now. >> let's talk tariffs, oklahoma could be negatively impacted on the terrace of steel and aluminum on china what are your plans to insulate your residence on that front is there anything you can do? >> speaking of tariffs, i support the president, to use it as a negotiation tool, we have to get some of the critical supply chain closer to home think about critical minerals, oklahoma had been a leader there's more mineral to magnet manufacturers critical mineral industry is so important whether it's chips or magnets to go to cell phones or fighter jets. we need to get the supply chain closer to home so if tariffs are a way to get that done,

that would be good. there's another huge billion-dollar company from overseas looking to come to the u.s., coming to the oklahoma and the tariffs will help them so there's consequences either way. as a general rule the america first agenda creating manufacturing jobs here, i think somebody needs to look at that and i think the president is doing a good job. >> let's move on to abortion. a few years ago you signed the most restrictive law on abortion in the country which essentially ban orall abortions. with a section to save the life of the mother. republican state lawmakers have since introduced bills last year so to further restrict abortions. is the abortion issue settled for you? >> it really is. there's like 3000 new bills filed in oklahoma every year i'm sure every state is the same i like how the world can come up with 40,000 things to do every year is mind-boggling.

we believe in protecting lives in oklahoma and of the mother of the child being the most profamily state in the country. but the issue is settled around, criminalize anything. i doubt seriously that will get to my desk but we will be protecting moms and uncle, >> what is your stance on the texas lawsuit against a new york doctor for prescribing abortion pills to texas residents. is it a legal strategy we could expect to see out of oklahoma as well. >> i saw that states do need clarity. that believe in protecting life there is doctors in other states who's in charge of the care of the patience or just need clarity from the courts on what that looks like.

whether oklahoma joints haven't spoken with our attorney general on that specific issue but we have to wait and see. >> we are here to recognize the importance of state influence on the national policy conversation. so much of what we've seen, out of the white house the last few months has already happened in the state. with a policy you have pioneered in ucoklahoma that yo want to see a federal version of in the next few years. >> to us it was atpretty common sense i was maybe the first governor to say working to protect our women in sports in oklahoma or not, let boys play in girl sports i went to the white house last week the week before when the president signed the executive order we just think it's pretty common sense we think we are in line with most americans. we are not against anybody but want to protect women sports but those are things we've done in our state and now they are being done with the republican

president. specifically i can't think of a policy that hasn't been done yet but i will get back to. >> your headed to the white house shortly after this event what message do you intend to share with the president. >> i don't know if i will be talking to the president but i'm having lunch with the secretary of agriculture brooke rollins. she's a friend so i will ask her how her job is going and what we can do to be helpful in oklahoma with our great cotton farmers wheat farmers soybean cattle producers that kind of stuff. >> thank you so much for being here. thank you veryone.

>> we ll take you live to the annual conservative political action congress known as cpac her remas from florida congressman byron donald housing in the fair secretary scott turner and others. until then, here's a portion of the event from earlier with rick l the trump administration's presidential envoy for special missions. l