the congressional committee and the amount required is by seniority and it went through the roof. >> i'm one of the members of a soundtrack. money, money, money playing in the background. i knew everybody, the name of their kids, i knew everybody. i was at one time the number two razor of the democrat party. the reason was, when republicans 2011 in the house.

i became a big money raiser. you are an appropriate are and money for candidates. will it was just like whoever came will. you for -- >> loretta. yes, ma'am. i need $100,000 today. let's nancy, i'm not good. because you haven't and you and raise it.

still nancy would call it any $2,150,000. it now. when your leader calls you and you got, you got to give it. that is the name of the game we have had a good saturday. >> from 5000 people based on those and this is a big one on both sides of the aisle for

billions and they are the various numbers. you have to do something in order to get there but there is like an entire ecosystem of donors to get to them requires different strategies. that is yet to be written because the entire book of fundraising has been rewritten the past three or four years so an interesting session. some raise money to get reelected in some raise money to get other people elected. there's a lot more to it than

initially. >> i think a lot of the times in terms of individuals "we had our country is broken especially the one before and i must is failing hundreds of millions of dollars to have. >> and this is united. >> yes in terms of -- if i gave a dollar to the campaign it would be corporate dollars and nobody knows where it's being spent.

>> we have another question. >> thank you so much for joining us here. as you mentioned, there's a lot of currently in our political environment i wanted to ask, we see in this very polarized era courageous republicans. ...

alleviate the polarization and going so far to, like, risk their own seat and leaving their seat in congress. do you see yourself bowing to kamala harris, for example, or what do you make of liz cheney and adam kissinger and so on? >> i have a unique view, i told you i was in the district after i came out against trauma and 16 my primary opponent thought 33,000 writings which caused me did below 50% and then in 18 i had the most difficult race that i've had over the course of 10 years because of my position on

trump. because i double down on it in 18. you will see he endorsed me. that was not because i asked. somebody else did that. great personal cost. the career path that you are on. i cannot speak for that. adam and i both got elected at the same time and we keep in touch regularly. it took a lot of courage to stand up to the party. again, people these days have been granted permission to do some pretty awful things, even beyond name-calling and things like that. i have mad respect for anybody from either poetry -- party,

that is willing to stand up against their party because it's about our country before it is about our party. >> i would just say this. no matter what your personal opinion is, half of this country is going to vote for him. whether it is 49%, you know, it is very close, i think that there are a lot of republicans that separate anxiety has said and done from either things that he stands for, or the fact that he is not kamala harris. there are a lot of republicans who say i don't like this, i don't like that, but i really do not subscribe to her brand of progressive politics. you can now support kamala harris without looking at donald

trump as a world savior. in terms of adam and liz, i know them both, i like them both. the main thing, to be perfectly blunt with you is there safety. there are, you know, political violence is not just if you speak out against trump. it could be when you speak out in favor of trump. trump almost got assassinated. that is a real problem with our politics. the translation from opposing a candidate or supporting a candidate to being an enemy of the state or worthy of someone's violent acts against you. that is a discussion for another day. there are members of congress who worried day in and day out about their safety and whether they will be able to go home and

see their kids if they vote a certain way. that is not what this republic was founded upon. it was founded upon going to washington, voting on behalf of the interest of your citizen and then one day returning back home and living your life free of harassment. that is a real challenge of our time. >> i would like to think that if i was in those positions -- i don't know. i would say tremendous respect for both of them. i think they have both been focused. adam did not work for reelection liz did and lost. maybe giving her a little bit more up on that because she pushed the envelope. also about our system. the republican party, it is not every district that depends on those individuals they are.

if you go against the presidential choice, if you go against donald trump, you will have a primary and you will probably lose. someone will take a seat and it will not be you. >> i made it. i made it. so you decided you had enough. that is true. i know donald trump. i don't know if i've actually met him. i've known him for like 50 years i was on one phone, hold on a second. i go i don't know. i just don't like that guy. i don't want to answer the phone so i was right about him.

at donald trump type of person on the democratic side, i do not see it ever happening. someone who had no respect for the constitution no respect for the laws. given my background and my character, i think i would get but i do give a lot of respect to people. that was not easy. i never had, you probably had this, i only had one threat against me in my 20 years in congress. it was around christmas time. others today -- >> may be one more question from the audience. let's see. >> i will get yours, too. >> hello. thank you for coming today. there are issues that are generally popular among the

american people. democratic republican weird they say the reason why these issues are not being engaged with even though they are generally popular is because the money of politics. what would you say to them? >> i am not so sure that i agree i would have to look at the polling. extending public healthcare. there are so many people who do not like the aca. having such a hard time passing that. there a lot of people that want universal healthcare. it is called medicare. i would run into people and they would say don't vote for that aca thing. don't vote for that obamacare. i want to keep my medicare. medicare is like obamacare. i don't think there is as big of

an appetite. i think it is a very divisive issue. i think some people want healthcare. i think that there is a good group of people who do not want the government involved in healthcare. and then there is a group of people that think government is probably the only way we will get the healthcare that all americans want. >> okay. you have medicaid or you have the exchanges if you don't. i would say it is probably less about the expansion of healthcare and more about the benefits that you would be entitled to under healthcare. i think the more emerging issue and the democrats kind of illness, republicans have rejected it, should they negotiate with pharmaceutical companies on drug pricing. that, to me, is a central issue rather than what you said. what types of healthcare and

what services provided within the healthcare system should be guaranteed. >> on top of that, should it be a change within themselves. should it be an option that the government has there. in terms of that versus a single-payer health care system which i think for a lot of reasons, not just because of republican oppositions or democratic oppositions, i think in terms of forward. that would be where i think you will see some of that. >> inches interesting, too. agreeing with you, congresswoman medicare for all does not hold very well. depending on how you frame it. >> i carry dental vision should it be included? i can tell you where that one

falls. >> that supports what you just said. those are majority. >> expansion could mean something a little bit different , but, yes. everybody wants more things especially if it does not cost anything. >> historically in our country it does not always mean you should go towards the populist all the time. i think you kinda have some temperate. that is what we are missing right now. certainly on both sides in terms of the rhetoric that is being used. not that trump wants to have tax credit -- >> on the auto loan. yeah, yeah. interest deductibility is on your auto loan. >> auto companies will like it. >> they will love it. whether it is responsible or not

responsible to do that or not. what we really need to be doing is looking at overall transportation. it is a very populist thing to say but not something that will be an -- enacted by the congress , quite frankly. >> that is another interesting book. where does it had in the republican party where it is very prominent. where does it had in the democratic party over the next 10-15 years. the fact that you have republican members praising the ftc chair on some of the think she is doing to me is mind blowing. it is acceptable in many republican circles. probably more alive and well when you were serving. martha, i do not recall a huge populist strand in the republican congress when we were there. >> they kind of trusted their

members of congress to go and do their job. it was not until the advent of silos of information and cable tv and now you only talk to your friends and reiterate what you all think together and you never hear the other side type of thing. until all of that in social media came in, before it was like you all did not really know what we were doing in d.c. you just trusted that we would go and we would work as best we could and then we would come back and filter through what i did. i would tell you, oh, yeah, listen to what i did and you guys with say loretta is a great congresswoman. now if i was in there and i came back i would have a long list of people screaming and yelling at me. >> i always hated it when we sat in our conference and we were told if you are explaining, you

are losing. no, if i am explaining, i am actually doing my job. this whole idea of the representative government is i have to know all the nitty-gritty details to make a determination of whether this is good policy or bad policy to save you the trouble. that is why you elected me because you do trust me to go make that decision. if i am not coming home and meeting with the people i represent on a regular basis throughout my district saying i know you think you disagree with me on this, but let me explain to you why i made the decision with the information that i had at the time. generally, even if people still disagree with you, you will start getting some head nods in the audience. that is explaining and you are winning because you are actually doing your job. >> i think we have time for one more. >> thank you.

watching these presidential debates, i have a lot of students that will say i do not know what this president's policy is. i think the debate should be between speaker johnson a minority jeffries. do you see there being a debate party versus party may be in the midterm not a presidential election but something that speaks to the policymaking branch versus the presidency. >> i did not really have a place with that. they have been arranged on the floor in the past. i do not know if we will ever see it between the two leaders themselves. i would pay to see that myself. having that cadence of a baptist minister as a hip-hop artist. he is amazing. he became the chair of the caucus after i left. i could not be more proud. look, johnson under the most duress of any elected official in washington today outside of the president's elections. his position as speaker is very

tenuous. >> volatile. >> very volatile. >> agreeing to that under those circumstances. he has more to lose i think. >> the leaders used to do a colloquy at the end of the week, does that still happen. >> the minority leader and minority leader deal. he would always have these issues. >> policies. >> is a possible we will have this women's act in the upcoming >> we -- would we include stocking because 90% of the women under age 43 believe they are being stocked. so, he would put policy into the scheduling. the speaker would say, no, we are not doing that.

>> what is interesting though is if you were to have that and i'm sure i would defer to loretta and joe in terms of where they see the division, there are differences between the parties. especially on tax. there are differences within the party on trade issues, uncertain national security geopolitical issues. if you are to have the speaker in the minority leader having this debate, they are subject they would not like to talk about because things still need to be flushed out within each political party. a fascinating commentary on modern day contemporary political parties and some of the tensions that exist. >> people talking about joe biden. nancy pelosi, not jeffries and not chuck schumer because chuck schumer and jeffries have constituencies within their caucus.

not those constituents anymore. he did. you would've gone back to the house of representatives. you want me to leave because you want to keep the senate. they really could not do it, in my opinion. that is an example of why you will not see that. >> he's going to lose his arm. >> i want to just close by asking you each, again, i am sorry. we are running out of time now. we have to finish the conversation. i want to ask you each very briefly just to give you a minute of what gives you hope in today's political climate. i would love to start with may be brian, if you can do it. just give us a quick sense of what gives you hope.

>> a lot of the folks that are now running for office, i mean, look, i came up through the political system. a very conventional path. a lot of the folks you see running for congress now, running for local office, 10 years ago probably had no desire or conception that they would ever do it. frankly, our democracy is founded on citizens having a complaint, having a grievance in deciding to lean in, understand how to get on the ballot, run for office to make the change that they want to see happen. notwithstanding the problems that we have, the secret ingredient to reforming things and fixing things are interested citizens have a pass i want to serve. that still exists in our country that said, that gives me hope. >> i thought one of the reasons why we are so old arises because of all the social media and siloing of information in everything.

i think at some point especially you young people will get sick and tired of that. you will go off your stuff and you will go, okay, we have to do something different it is not working for us. more information than you have ever had. your phone has more capability and it then what it took to put the man on the moon. and, yet, for some reason, it is not being used the way i think that it should be used. really positive forward manner. i think that at some point you all are going to get sick of the fact of what is going on and you will say, okay, we need to hit it in a different way. my hope is that you do decide you want to get involved. you decide you want to run for -- you decide it's important to go to washington, d.c. and take elected or civil servants.

with your knowledge that all of this information was just a bunch of garbage that you will actually decide you can make a difference and you can get there and help us. >> what gives me hope is that we are not a nation in decline. that may come as a shock to you. you were being pummeled by one individual particularly. there is no country on the face of the earth that comes remotely close to what we have here. we are the cutting edge of ai. we are the cutting edge of everything. you get that one down to ai. i believe in this country and i will say this.

i love what i did for 32 years. i was in the state legislature for two years. i enjoy, i had joy when i did it i liked debating my calling. i like talking about those issues. i think that that is what needs to be restored again. i love going on campaigns. i love to be on the street. i enjoyed it. this is not something that is ugly. this is not something that should be frowned upon or denigrated. it should be uplifted. if i could leave that, my follow-up would be never bet against the united states. i will just take this opportunity to provide each of you with a little hope. what you see up here, this

happens in congress every day. has it gotten more difficult in our current political environment? yes, every single day they work on bills that they are in session that are bipartisan. you just will not hear about it on whatever news network you choose to watch. this relationship, my best friend still to this day is the democrat in alabama. when i tell you we are friends first, we are friends first. we were colleagues second. but i just need all of you to know the news networks cannot make money also telling you that people in congress actually like each other across the aisle. and, so, i just need you all to be encouraged by this. this is why we do this. to demonstrate to you that they are rational, reasonable people that love their country.

we make about it from very different perspectives. so we are willing to listen to each other and hear each other and work with each other because at the end of the day we all love our country. >> those inspiring words. let's think our panelists. brian, loretta, joe, martha. thank you to nyu for hosting. thank you to the audience for great questions and participation. have a great day.