Molly Jong-Fast
Democratic Congressman from Arizona Ruben Gallego joined vanity lounge correspondent Molly Jong Fast on his podcast, Quick Policy, to talk about his 2024 campaign for the seat held by newly independent senator Kirsten Sinema, who was recently seen clapping another filibustering fan Joe Manchin in Davos. Additionally, Gallego revealed that his office in Congress is next to the not particularly talented Mr. Santoswith a secret door between them.
This interview excerpt has been lightly edited for style and clarity.
Vanity Lounge: I was thinking about this video of her in Davos wearing a fur vest, or maybe a bath mat, [where] she bragged about maintaining the filibuster and her work did that. Could the people of Arizona ever benefit from keeping the filibuster?
Ruben Gallego: No, because the buccaneer has really become a tool of obstruction. And back to Davos, shall we? Is there a problem with her being Davos? Maybe not necessarily, right? I’ve never been to Davos, I don’t quite understand what it is, but it’s ok. You were manchin high-five for use filibuster to kill the Voting Rights Act on MLK weekend. She wasn’t in Arizona, she wasn’t in all the MLK events that we have, and Martin Luther King weekend, that’s hugely important in Arizona because we actually, unfortunately, not a big story with Martin Luther King weekend in Arizona. We were boycotted for many years because we wouldn’t pass it. It was just a lot of bad stuff. And, you know, Sinema decides number one, to skip MLK weekend – again, which she’s done for many years, but then kills the Voting Rights Act named after her so-called – which she calls her friend – John Lewis, using a ruler from the Civil War era. It’s just ridiculous. That being said, I think she actually gives more and more reasons all the time for this type of campaign.
I want to ask you about this because some of the reviews I saw were like, well, someone on the left can’t beat Sinema, but Sinema actually presented himself as a very to the left.
I mean, the problem is Sinema can’t win.
Right.
She can run away, and if I go away, and for some weird reason I don’t run away, she’s still going to lose because she’s alienated everyone because no one makes her confidence in Arizona.
Yeah, she’s terrible.
She took horrible positions and she really decided to support some of the [kind] not the best entities in the country. When it was time for us to negotiate lower drug prices, instead of saying, I’m going to help negotiate lower drug prices, she went to negotiate on behalf of the pharmaceutical lobby. By the way, they have a lot of lobbyists on Capitol Hill. They don’t need one more paid for with taxpayers’ money. When it was time, for example, to try and pass the Cut Inflation Act and it looked like, you know, the ultra-rich, private equity and hedge funds were about to be taxed a little more, she hold the bill until there is an exclusion for this very small population of people who, for the most part, do not live in Arizona. So she broke trust with Arizona voters and it’s not coming back. And no matter what she changes, she could change the Republican tomorrow. She still won’t succeed.
I mean, she’s basically a Republican, though, at this point.
I do not know. I think at least Republicans have some, you know, moral values that they will stick to.
Right. I mean, I wouldn’t go that far. But I think it’s interesting, the poll shows that you definitely have a path and in fact Sinema is really picking up as many Republican voters as she is picking up Liberal voters at this point.
Our poll shows that she will take more Republicans than Democrats. And also once we run a full campaign where people all over Arizona get to know my story, my story, my dedication to serving this country, I think we’re actually going to be able to hold a lot more Democrats than ‘she won’t be able to take [and] she’ll end up taking more Republicans in the end.
…
I want to ask you, are you in Congress right now. How is George Santos? How is he, what is he doing?
Oh, oh, good old Jorge.
I mean, what’s going on? Do people hang out with him?
…His office is next to mine.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
Oh my God. I am definitely coming to visit you. Wait, so did you hang out with him?
Oh yeah. So we—our office, we share an interior door like [at] motels.
Oh my God…
I open the door and go out with him for a bit and have a little coffee to see how he’s doing. We’re talking about all these multiple personalities. All his multiple jobs.
Do you really have a door in your office?
I ask him for stock advice because he used to work at JPMorgan. Oh, yeah, that’s great. It’s good.
Do you really have a door?
We do have a door between our office and their office, but we don’t, obviously, we don’t open it…. But I guess we might at some point for, you know, shits and laughs.
Listen to more Fast Politics here.