CNN Newsroom: Interview with Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA)
Interview
"Because this is what Democrats always do. We always bail out the Republicans at the last minute when they can't get their own act together and properly fund the government.
We did the right thing for the American people, because of how many thousands and thousands of families were about to go without money to put food on the table. We did the right thing for our troops, who were worried about whether they will get paid in the few weeks if we had a government shutdown.
But of course, the chaos within the Republican Party continues. And when I was in the House gym this morning early on, talking to Republicans about what was going to happen today, at 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning, they had no idea. So, this was a very chaotic day.
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Absolutely. And thank goodness he did the right thing by putting this bill on the floor, that Democrats and Republicans could vote for, but it was far from perfect.
And obviously, the big thing missing from this compromise bill is funding for Ukraine. Funding not just for Ukraine's national security, but the smartest investment that we can make today in our national security.
And so, while the American people and federal employees and our troops were watching what would happen today on Capitol Hill, make no mistake, Vladimir Putin had a really good day. He was watching this, too. Xi Jinping over in China who's made clear his ambitions to take over Taiwan, he was watching this, too. He had a good day, seeing Americans fail to support Ukraine.
That means that when we get back to work next week, we've got to make funding Ukraine a priority.
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That's right.
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Look, Liz Cheney is totally right and you don't always hear Seth Moulton saying that Liz Cheney is right. But we're very much on the same page here.
We cannot appease Russia. I think both of us are wondering when the Republican Party became the pro-Russia, pro-Putin party. And yet that's what you saw on display today.
But at the end of the day, we needed to get through this shutdown. A shutdown is not good for our national security. A shutdown is not good for Ukraine, either. If we had plowed into a shutdown, we wouldn't have been providing Ukraine funding under that scenario, as well.
So, this was the right thing to do, but am I confident we can get Ukraine the funding? I'm not confident, because my concern is, is Republicans. Republicans who sit in classified briefings with us on the House Armed Services Committee, completely agree with the Ukraine policy and then get out on TV and say something different and take votes like you've seen this week.
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I wouldn't put it that way. Because at the end of the day, you never vote on a perfect piece of legislation. I don't think I've voted on a perfect piece of legislation in my time in Congress. There are always some compromised to make.
But the concern over this particular compromise, the concern over not getting Ukraine what they need to continue fighting this criminal war, and ultimately standing up for the security of the western world. That's why it's an investment in our national security. A really smart investment to support Ukraine today in this fight. You know, that is a big concern.
And there's no question that it's going to have to be a priority that we need to address in the next two weeks, when we're going to be back in Washington.
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Look, I don't agree with Timmy about everything, but I
certainly agree with him about his analysis on September 30th. It does come around every year. We know exactly when it's going to happen.
And he's right. Look, the Republican Congress should have been passing appropriations bills over the last six to eight months. This is the responsibility of governing if you control the House of Representatives.
Over in the Senate, where Democrats have narrow control, they've been doing this. They have not only been passing appropriations bills, they've been doing it in a cooperative, bipartisan manner.
That's what Kevin McCarthy should be doing in the House. Instead, of course, he's just been catering to the most extreme members of his caucus, really subservient to this dangerous far right wing of the Republican Party that's really controlling the debate.
Now, today was an exception, he came to the middle. Let's see if he can continue doing that for the rest of the year. If he does that, then we might actually do our job and get the government properly funded.
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Well look, I voted against Kevin McCarthy 15 times, that's how long it took him to get elected speaker and I'd be proud to vote against him for a 16th time. But you're right that there is concern that whoever replaces him could be even further to the right.
Now, what Kevin McCarthy has to show, though, is that he's genuinely willing to work with Democrats, and that he's not going to pull things like he did today, where he put this 80-plus page bill on the floor, giving us 15 minutes to read it. That's not good bipartisanship work.
Kevin McCarthy made a deal on government funding with the president of the United States several months ago, and he's reneged on that deal. So, the issue is not just that Kevin McCarthy is conservative or moderate in the Republican Party, the question is whether we can trust him, you know.
I work with Republicans that I can trust. I passed (INAUDIBLE) the [overtalking] with Chris Stewart of Utah, a Republican I could trust. I don't agree with Chris on everything, but we could work together on a really important bill for the country.
The question a lot of Democrats have is can we genuinely work with Kevin McCarthy, or is he continuing his practice of making conflicting promises to a lot of different people?
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Thank you, Jim.
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