Transcript of Cory Booker On The Fatal Flaws of the Protect College Sports Act | Hour 3 New

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Well, I know everybody wants to know the Arkansas-Texas A&M game, who won. We're not going to show you that. Only 2 Razorbacks ran in the men's 8K, but the women's team had a full squad for the 5K. We're rolling now, huh? Look at this kick down the home stretch. The definition of you never know. Comb giving it everything she has. It's a fight to the finish, and Comb Gets the win by 1/10 of a second, 15-59. Absolutely incredible. Talk about me maximum. Braylon, good on ya. Number 2, Georgia. Georgia moves to 5-0 with a 38-14 win over Vanderbilt. Russell threw for nearly 300 yards and had 4 total touchdowns.

Very good.

Just like that, the Tide are 5-0. And you know what, Austin Simmons had 2 touchdowns. And the Gators had no answers. That's a fact, Jack. A colossal win for Eli Drinkwitz and Mizzou. 45-17 the final from Columbia. Another crisis solved. Byron Brown finds Arlis Boardingham. 16-yard touchdown. It's a 3-point game.

Do what now?

Vols and Hogs kick off Saturday at 3:15 PM on SEC Network. Right on. Finally, you see they're trying to line up. That is weird, wild stuff. So instead of an extra point, they decide to go for 2. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what? Kenny Minchie to a wide-open Willie Rodriguez for the 2-point conversion. Hey, that's what I'm talking about. And what a start to the Will Stein era in Lexington. Kentucky wins in overtime and the Wildcats are 4-1.

Our thanks to Hayden Herrera for carrying the torch for us in Arkansas. We will see here shortly whether Zazz bites into an apple and loses a tooth. We will also—

I want that tooth.

We're going to recreate for you with—

I'm giving you the truth.

With Zaz and Cody, the Bram Stoker sensuality of the audio experience. Going to play that for you again. And at some point, Cory Booker is going to join us. But I don't want to go too much further, even though Chris and Tony still want to talk about the Virginia Tech field goal from last week.

Plum dumb.

I want to talk about the baseball from last night because it was— it really was wonderful. Do you guys want to guess who has played more postseason games for the Dodgers than any Dodger ever. Any of you want to take a guess on who this person is? I think it's 94 or 95 postseason games because they've expanded the playoffs. So it's going to be a modern player instead of like a Ron Say or Steve Garvey or Davey Lopes.

Will Smith.

Ohtani.

It's Kike Hernandez.

Wow.

More than anyone ever. And the game yesterday, okay, you've got Just, it's just wonderful to see Sale outpitched by Yamamoto while Sale is facing a struggling Ohtani and throwing 100 miles an hour on the black. And Freddie Freeman breaking the hearts of the Braves when the Braves replaced him really well with Matt Olson. But Freddie Freeman and those perfect gleaming teeth of his has another home run off of Sale, a lefty.

Like, it's just insane.

It's just crazy how— it's crazy to me that Sale is throwing 100 miles an hour. He didn't used to throw 100 miles an hour.

Like, this is, this is the most velocity he's ever had in a season.

How old is he?

37 years old.

You know, when that stuff started happening back in the '90s, you know, people ask questions.

It's different now. These guys are chasing velocity in a different way with the way they throw.

They figure it out in their late 30s?

Well, no, it's not necessarily Chris Sale. It's across the league. It's a deeper conversation no one wants to have here.

But while we talk about all of the Dodgers excess, I don't know that we talk enough about how great Yamamoto is. Yeah, I mean, it's 8 earned runs in more than 50 innings. He's the only player in Major League history to win in 5 straight postseason appearances while not allowing more than a run or a walk in any of them, and all of them are on the road. Like, this dude, for him, for him to outpitch Chris Sale—

Sale!

Uh, dramatically, uh, it is something that I think is worth celebrating. And more to the point, Uh, because Mookie Betts is not what he used to be. The Dodgers have holes and weaknesses. But Acuña needs to do something in a big spot in the playoffs when he's their best player and he's coming up in situations. He had a 3-1 count on Yamamoto with men on 2nd and 3rd and ability to tie the game, and, uh, he just doesn't do—

he hasn't done—

when's the last time Acuña did anything in the playoffs? And he's a great player. He's— I'm— look, I love Olson, but He's there. If, if Atlanta has one player who is the best, it needs to be Acuña for them to win the World Series.

Here's a great stat for you from Jason Foster. Ronald Acuña Jr. has won more MVP awards than he has postseason RBIs since 2020.

Acuña Matata.

That's right.

It's got a Hall of Fame vote.

It had to be said.

Did it?

Yeah.

Hakuna Matata.

He does have a Hall of Fame vote. Uh, Acuña has—

And when Acuña's up on it, I'll do my due diligence.

By asking me.

Me?

Means no worries.

One of the things that is funny about Acuña, he's unsuccessfully challenged 14 called strikes this season.

All the rest of your days.

He had a brutal one yesterday.

I mean, so he just—

you all—

but that pitch, that pitch on the inside.

Like, how are you supposed— what are you gonna do with that?

What are you gonna do with that?

How are you supposed to do that?

Uh, let's go ahead and get, uh, Jeremy's top 5 observations before we get to Zazz losing a tooth and Corey Booker.

Acuña, matata.

Acuña, matata.

Let's get to Jeremy's top 5 most interesting things from baseball.

Yeah, a couple OLIs in that one, which is that Chris Sale's first 6 outs he recorded were strikeouts. He lost.

Sale!

The first out that was recorded that wasn't a strikeout was Mauricio Dubón robbing Freddie Freeman of a home run. Look at this catch right at the wall, right in front of the Dodgers bullpen. It was an unbelievable catch and it didn't end up meaning anything because he hit another home run later in the game. One of my personal favorite moments was Cooper Pratt tagging from third in the game because he saw the left fielder creeping in and it wasn't going to be Jackson Merrill. That's just a little baseball thing that was really fun for me. Another OLI. Chris Sale and Yoshinobu Yamamoto giving each other the mutual hat tip before the game when Sale was walking out to the outfield. They showed a shot of this. It was awesome. Just both of them tipping the cap and it lived up to it. Sale wasn't at his best because his best is a shutout against the Dodgers earlier this season. But even with that, it was unbelievable pitching.

He's a freak.

Number 5, the moment that Pat Murphy had when Jackson Merrill was chasing down this fly ball. Check this out.

I've been a little antsy. I think we've swung at some pitches. Get it, get in the gap, Sal. God damn it, Merrill. Jackson Merrill right there.

He's being interviewed on the broadcast live at that moment.

He's like, oh, he was gonna be done.

God damn it, Merrill.

For him to say that. Jackson Merrill is a center fielder, man.

Oh, he's incredible. Then, uh, number 4, Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 during the 8th inning. It was amazing. He was standing there, he's a Padres fan, and he's soaking in the moment in the 8th where all of the fans are singing All the Small things, and you could see him getting emotional. They came out of, out of break, and it was, it was really special. And you love moments like that. Number 3, Yoshinobu Yamamoto. I mean, this guy is one of the greatest postseason pitchers of all time. At this point, pitchers in MLB postseason history with an ERA below 2.2 and a WHIP below 0.85 in a minimum of 60 innings pitched: Mariano Rivera, Christy Mathewson, Yoshinobu Yamamoto. That's how great he is, and he's the guy that's ultimately going to lead them to win this World Series if it happens. Number 2, Xander Bogaerts. He had a ridiculous game. This bat breaks, and then Xander Bogaerts, who's standing on second, avoids the broken bat, distracts the shortstop, rounds third, heads for home. It becomes the 4th run of the game, which is ultimately the winning run. That was after He laid out in the hole between third and shortstop.

They call that the 5-and-a-half hole, where he laid out and he stopped the ball from going into the outfield that kept the bases loaded. He was ridiculous on defense, and then he turned a double play on a ball that was hit 108 miles an hour at him. He had a spectacular day. It was awesome to watch. And then number 1, Quique Hernandez. He's the greatest postseason riser. in the history of the sport. He's an average player. And I saw a stat that said he's the only player in the history of baseball with at least 100 at-bats, period, that 10% or more of his career home runs are in the postseason. Over 10% of his career home runs. He's Reggie Jackson. He has as many postseason home runs as Mr. October. And he's Quique Hernandez. It, it's amazing to watch him play the way that he has. He's got over 300 plate appearances in the postseason. He's got an OPS over .800. He's, he's one of the most special players.

Look up for me, please, just Mark Lemke versus what he was during the playoffs and what he was during the regular season, because that's my previous— that's the previous guy in baseball that outperforms everything he's seen.

I'll do it.

I actually had a browser open to Mark Lemke.

You always do. I also have told you guys before, I know that people like Tatis and Machado, but I do like Bogaerts, France, and Merrill as part of that lineup.

Awesome.

The Padres are good enough to win the World Series. I just— I mean, the Brewers are so good.

Dan Levitar!

Can I tell you something? I don't know, it was maybe like a month ago, and I decided to watch Pitch Clock, and I told Jeremy—

Jonathan Saslow!

This is a good show you're doing!

This is the Dan Levitar Show!

Let me time this to see if I can get all of this done where I'm summoning Dracula, sensuality, and Cory Booker at the same time. So the first thing we're doing is is we're replaying the sound before Greg Cody and Zaz recreate it of a very sensual audio reading from Bram Stoker's Dracula.

This blood that pours from me has your Lucy in it. Now drink.

It is you, the figure in my dreams.

Drink. No, no, no, no. There is no leaving. You will not wriggle away. Drink from me.

Ah!

And with this baptism of my blood in your mouth, throat, and veins, you shall be my servant!

Yes, I will.

Please.

All right.

So now, finally, without any further ado here, we have Greg Cody and Zeb Wells as trying to recreate all of this sensuality. Let's see how they do as we also get Cory Booker ready, uh, to talk about the—

They do this in front of an established member of Congress.

You'll be all right.

You got there.

Senator.

Senator.

That was such good filibustering.

I was looking for— The honorable member. Why did I think I was gonna get away with it? Established member of politics.

All right, let's see what it is that Greg Cody and Zaz do here with Dracula's established member and where it is that it gets put, as Greg Cody is sure to cough during this sensuality. Let's see if we can also get Cory Booker in the picture-in-picture so he can be confused and wonder what the hell is going on around here.

Is everyone ready? Zaz, are you going to— you're going to try and bite into the apple even though you're—

Yeah, man.

Yeah, I want that tooth.

All right, let's do this. And let's not keep Cory Booker, please, waiting very long because he's very Very busy.

Are you ready, Greg?

The blood that pours from me has your Lucien. Now drink.

Oh, it's you. Oh, the figure in my dreams.

Drink. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. There is no leaving. You will not wriggle away. Drink from me. Ah, and with this baptism of my blood in your mouth, throat, and veins, you shall be my servant!

Bravo!

Incredible!

So last week the Senate voted 77 to 22. To pass the Protect College Sports Act, several amendments were proposed, including—

What show did I just get off?

That's right.

Fair question.

Am I in the wrong place?

You're in exactly the place you need to be, because I do want to understand a little bit better, Senator, and thank you for joining us, why it is more voices aren't like yours talking about how the Protect College Sports Act is not exactly as fair as you'd like to— like it to be. But among the amendments that were proposed was a provision that would have capped coaches' salaries at $5 million per year and restricted how often they could change jobs, but it was rejected 52-47. Can you take me through, Cory, what it is that you think happened there? Because I am bothered by the fact that the players are having a cap on their money, but the coaches want to continue to have freedom and power.

Yeah, look, this is a bill full of hypocrisy written by people who didn't play Division I sports, didn't experience the decades of exploitation, the unfairness, the fact that the NCAA has operated as a cartel, that the only times they would reform is when they got caught doing bad things or shamed. Remember, there were decades of the scholarships not even covering the full cost of college. It wasn't until Shabazz Napier, right after winning the Final Four, and said, hey, I go to bed hungry many nights, that they were shamed to tick up by a little bit the scholarship to give kids enough money to eat. It wasn't until the NCAA tournament that the women showed the abject disproportionate benefits that the men, male athletes got versus the paucity, the lack of resources that the women got, that the NCAA was shamed into changing. The NCAA's history is full of scandals, exploitation, cheating. You can go through it all. And my colleagues said, you know what, we're going to give you something that no other multibillion industry ever gets, if at all. We're going to give you a complete antitrust exemption to do whatever you want, to run your own rules, to control every aspect of this with no oversight.

We're going to call it protecting college sports, and we're going to say we're protecting athletes. But that is an abject lie because When it comes to athletes' health, safety, and well-being, it does very little to address what has been, unfortunately, an environment where too many of our kids have gotten hurt, where they haven't been able to enforce rules against sexual exploitation or discrimination. And it really has left vulnerable the very things they said they were trying to protect, like women's sports or Olympic sports, which have no permanent protections in the bill. But the NCAA got complete control and antitrust. So my amendments to this bill were trying to expose the hypocrisy, the incongruencies, the abject failures of this bill, one of which, if this is about money, if this is the money concerns, well, one of the biggest things I hear from honest athletic directors, honest university presidents, is that the exploding cost of coaching staff salaries is one of the biggest races to the bottom that they have with In 2025 alone, we had the buyout clauses for 15 coaches approach a quarter of a billion dollars that could have been invested in athletes and in non-revenue-generating sports and the like.

But so this bill basically said, hey, we want to have a free market for everybody and everything except for college athletes. And for them, the United States Congress, who knows very little about Division I sports, especially playing them, we're going to be overly prescriptive on those athletes. constraining any of the issues they might have tried to bargain for that protect their well-being, their safety, their long-term healthcare.

What else are people not being told about this bill?

Well, I think the— a couple things that really frustrate me: they knew they had a problem with minority groups. The NAACP is against it. The Urban League is against it. Every Black senator in the Senate was against it, and the Congressional Black Caucus because we all know that the revenue-generating sports, men's basketball, men's football, heck, women's basketball, are disproportionately African American, you know, 40 to 50% African American. They were just for 5 years suddenly starting to get power granted to them by the courts. And so what they did is they said, okay, we're gonna help HBCUs. And they offered some money to them, but they actually didn't offer money. They did something in congressional speak of authorizing future potential for money, but not actually appropriating those dollars. So that's just insulting to me. They're saying, okay, we're gonna try to buy some Black support by dangling out here some resources that may or may not come to historically Black colleges and universities. And so the bill is chock-full of insults like that, that It really is shocking to me that Congress on the Senate side—the House hasn't passed this—but that the Senate side would move forward with such an unfair bill that leaves, frankly, for me as a guy that that played, I have friends that are still dealing with medical costs for injuries that they sustained, making millions of dollars putting butts in seats in stadiums across the country, and spinal injuries, knee injuries, and now this exploding problem we're having.

That we're just beginning to understand of CTE, of traumatic brain injury. And so they said, okay, we're going to put a $100 million fund together to cover the lifetime costs of some of these athletes. Well, I hate to tell you, it sounds like a big number, but that is not enough. It pales in comparison to what the commitment that the NFL does to its players. And given the fact that we have more athletes playing college sports than we do in the pros, significantly more, It is an inadequate amount of money to in any way guarantee that we're going to be there for kids that have serious lifetime chronic injuries as a result of playing football. So, look, I've spent years of my life looking at the failures of the NCAA. I put the first bill out there called the College Athletes Bill of Rights because a lot of times we as fans focus on the marquee players that are going to have great careers in the NFL. Most kids are not, though. Most kids, these are their top-earning years of their lives. And yet we have universities that don't guarantee their rights to an adequate education, to healthcare, that there's no ways to protect our athletes from sexual assault.

There's no enforceable standards or concussion protocols. And many kids are left after 2, 3, 4 years of college play in worse shape than they were before and without resources to even deal with their educational healthcare needs. This is the bill that Congress comes up with. Why? Because for years that I was trying to get the health, safety, and educational standards established in the Senate, nobody would give it the time of day. But as soon as the gravy train of this $20 billion industry, as soon as after making millionaires after millionaires in college sports, as soon as the young people, athletes, got their say in court starting in 2021, suddenly college football was in crisis. And we needed to stop the people from having power at the negotiating table, strip away their power, and give the NCAA permanent antitrust protections, because God forbid they have to bargain in any kind of fair way with college athletes who for generations have been exploited in this sport.

What do you think the goal is of bringing someone like Senator Ted Cruz along? Does it strike you as strange?

Yeah, it does. It really does. Look, I watched over the last year or 2 a lot of wealthy people come in to lobby for this. There's a reason why I'm the only United States senator that doesn't take corporate PAC money, federal lobbyist money, issue area PAC money, because I see how it warps policy. And what I've seen is the conferences, the leagues, millionaire and more boosters suddenly come in and pour money all over Washington to get action on this bill. And they wrote a bill without college athletes or their organizations at the table. And so this to me is another example of the corruption in Washington where our agenda is too often controlled by very wealthy interests. And folks who love college football like me and love college athletics writ large need to understand that they are— that this is an industry. It is. It actually is a growing industry. When they— in about 4 or 5 years from now, when they renegotiate a lot of these TV contracts, it's going to explode even more money into it. I'm a Pac-10 guy, and I watched my historic conference get destroyed. Why? Because a few colleges were chasing the money.

This is about the money. And in Washington, God, we have a— we have— until we end the money in politics, we have too many folks in Congress will move when the money comes in to lobby them. And the sad thing is, you know, children don't have lobbyists. College football players, basketball players, athletes often don't have lobbyists. The interests often that we want represented of the people often get screwed over by the financial folks who can, who can pour, can deluge a rain of money down on our institution.

Dan Levitar.

What is the worst part of the life?

Jonathan Sasslow.

The worst part of the life of what?

This is the Dan Levitar Show.

Why am I not hearing the kinds of things you're saying in more places from more people?

Well, remember the networks. These are corporate networks. ESPN is a corporation. They didn't invite me on to talk about the other side, a guy again who played ball. Uh, uh, they didn't invite the head of the NAACP on, who is— anybody who will listen to him is talking about the unfairness of this bill. They invited the people on that are protecting, frankly, what makes ESPN and these other big media platforms so much money. And again, it is a finite pool of money. And the fact that athletes finally were winning the leverage in court to get some kind of fair shake, and not just the money, because the athletes I talked to They want safety. They want the ability to enforce protections for them in law. They want education. The stories of kids that had to, you know, again, 60 hours a week, it was what we were doing back in the early '90s. And a lot of guys aren't going to finish their degrees in 4 years. And the graduation rates for athletes, unfortunately, is not great. And so I've watched as kids had to reach in their own pocket to buy credits to finish their degrees after they contributed so much to the universities.

They should give them free education for 4 or 5 years after they graduate so they can get what they were promised. So I'm angry about this. I cannot believe that they just wrote a bill and they're running around saying this is going to protect college kids, college athletes, when really this bill is about the large moneyed interests and protecting the status quo and the revenue streams that are making coaches millionaires, making the businesses of sports richer and more secure so they do not have to allow college athletes to have the kind of leverage that the courts and the antitrust— even Supreme Court justices were saying, this is a rigged game. You cannot take away rights from the people that are actually creating the astonishing revenue of college sports.

The single most appalling thing about the Senate voting 77-22 to pass that bill, or in the bill itself, is blank according to you. Is it what you just said, or is it something Well, to me it is that.

It is how can you not have college athletes at the table listening to them, having hearings about the decades? There are bestselling books written about the exploitation of athletes in the NCAA. And so the appalling thing to me is you didn't listen to the players. You didn't listen to the experiences of people that played for 5 or 10 years. Or the parents' groups that have lost kids to heat exhaustion, the parents' groups that had young women be sexually assaulted, who are demanding to have a bill to protect those kids and to protect those athletes. You wrote a bill listening to the lobbyists, the conferences, and the very organization, the NCAA, who has such a bad historic reputation for being about themselves and their membership and not about the protection of college athletes. That to me is stunning that you would not have all the parties that have a stake in this matter at the table having hearings, listening to them before you start writing such a lopsided bill.

You proposed a major injury medical care fund for former athletes that would have gone from $100 to $200 million, and it came up one vote short. How heartbroken were you by that as the deciding margin? And what was the excuse or explanation given to you for why you'd vote against Yeah, I—

the whole thing was heartbreaking. I want to be honest. I fight like hell in the Senate on a lot of issues that are really important to me. This one was really heartbreaking because I watched senators that usually stand up for the little guy or the little gal. I watched people that I know are sensitive to issues like being able to sue people if you experience discrimination. I watched people that I know what their, their values are. heart, vote against this bill, vote against me and my amendments to this bill. And I think that's what broke my heart on this one. And a lot of folks said to me privately that I already made commitments before I understood the issues, or there are a lot of powerful forces in my state, like big schools coming in with their lobbyists and such. So I know this one didn't go down on the merits. It really went down because of the strength of the sponsors, and the interests and what they brought to bear. And it's really stunning to me that this was all done weeks before a major election, that members of my own party who should have been standing up for the little guy, that they didn't wait to do this when those interests would have had a lot more leverage at the table.

Senator, thank you for the work that you're doing in trying to protect the labor here. Outside of the labor, there's still a lot There's a lot that is weird about this bill. For example, why does a school have to be independent for 3 years before they can change conferences?

Yeah, well, again, I told you my agony of watching the Pac-10 go down and watching Stanford have to play in the Atlantic Coast Conference. This is about just that. They do not want especially what happened to the Pac-10 to happen to other conferences. Big interests in these conferences, a lot of big TV contracts that are coming up. You all know what this is really about. It is about trying to micromanage details in a bill, which, by the way, a lot of my conservative friends understandably get upset if the government, the federal government, is trying to micromanage parts of our economy or micromanage local law enforcement, what have you. But for some reason, Like this is okay that we would come and bring ourselves to issues that should be settled at a bargaining table, that we are actually micromanaging this. But when it comes to the conference and your questions, this is all about trying to protect the extraordinary money train that the conference alignments as it is right now have. And very soon, in just a handful of years, will be TV contracts renegotiated in a way that I think we all understand how valuable.

live sports and entertainment is getting in America. And so I think a lot of this was trying to prepare for these— this next round of negotiations.

We have fewer than 5 minutes left. As you mentioned, the bill now awaits a vote in the House. It's not expected until the House returns after the midterms. What do you expect to happen? What do you think is going to happen?

Well, I learned playing college football, you don't give up on something until the last second ticks off the clock. House is going to come back in. It's a very short session for them. It's called the lame duck session. So it'll be the session that has a little bit of November and a little bit of December, and they have a lot on their agenda. And so what I'm doing right now is it's a full-court press. I'm going to do everything I can to try to get people in the House of Representatives on both sides of the aisle to see this bill for what it is. And we hope we can defeat it in the House of Representatives.

Dominique Foxworth says the Protect College Sports Act boils down to One question. Who gets the power to make the rules, to change the rules, and enforce the rules? The core of it is about reestablishing the power the NCAA had in the past that the court system determined was illegal. The powers the players had accrued is completely gone. Do you agree with that?

100%. The players, again, generations of players have been exploited by the NCAA, have been cheated by the NCAA, have gotten unfair rules And just when they were starting to get some modicum of power and leverage at the negotiating table, suddenly the NCAA ran to Congress and said, please help us. Give us immunity. Give us antitrust. Give us preemption so they can't sue us even when we do wrong. And that should astonish every American who loves sports. That just when you were winning your rights, you were vindicating your rights in the courts. We're stepping in to do something that no industry in America really gets, which is sweeping antitrust protections when the very people, labor, the people that were doing the work, don't have even a seat at the table. This is just— try to imagine another industry where you would not give the people who are creating the value any kind of say or protections and give it all back to the cartel that has a history of exploiting and denying the rights. It's stunning to me. And they never have to come back to Congress again. It's not like, hey, we're going to give you 20 years of this and we'll reexamine.

No, we're giving you permanent, in perpetuity, forever, the kind of power that, that most industries would die to have over their labor, over the people that are creating the wealth and the prosperity.

We are running out of time, unfortunately. Roy has a question that's not about this subject, so it's a bit of a curveball, but go ahead, Roy.

Yeah, Senator, I want to talk about the upcoming midterms here. 25 years ago, the state of Florida used to be a swing state, but since then, at a national level, it's been a lost cause for the Democrats. But now, come this upcoming midterm, could flip a Senate seat here with Angie Nixon and can have a Democratic governor here for the state of Florida in David Jolly for the first time in 30 years. So what at the national level are the Democrats going to do to help the state of Florida flip to blue?

Yeah, look, I'm helping Nixon out because she's impressive as hell and has a story that has rarely been represented in the United States Senate. Somebody like her, somebody of her background. I've been watching Jolly's race. It's extraordinary. Look, I'm going to make a prediction on your show. The regular left-right divide in America, the tribalism of partisanship, I think it's coming to an end because when I go around New Jersey and our nation and I talk to American families, they just want some of the basics. They think the American dream is slipping away because they just can't afford it. childcare and healthcare. They just can't afford rent and prescription drugs. And I think Americans are realizing that the lies being told by both parties, that we should hate each other because one's red, one's blue, ain't working. And so here you get somebody like Angie Nixon who's coming up from union organizing and just saying enough is enough. We should have systems that make sense for everybody. I think that's gonna scratch the old old political record and create some new realignment here of a real group of most Americans who just want to redeem the dream of America.

And you add to that the ridiculousness we're seeing around immigration that has made Florida, which is a very diverse state with people from all around the planet, just say, wait a minute, we were told we were going to get rid of criminals off of our streets, but now we're taking away moms from their American children. We're deporting around churches, around schools, who are hardworking folks who have businesses, who are contributing to our economy and have blended families. And I think this has insulted a lot of people that we're making a lot of private organizations rich— private prisons, private transport companies, big contributors to Donald Trump and his family. We're going to make them rich by pulling people out of our neighborhoods who are many of many of them are as American as you and I, don't even know the country from their birth because they've been here since they were 1 or 2 years old. So I think all of that in total is making this election unpredictable, where the normal expectations are going to be slashed. And I'm hoping that my party, which, which has a lot to own up to for being feckless in affecting real change for American families, I hope my party gets the message that if we win back the Senate and the House, we win it with very little trust.

And we got to get right to work, not persecuting or making it all about Donald Trump. Most people don't care what you're against. They want to know what you're for. We need a new vision of America that redeems the dream, that makes this country affordable again for working people. And if we do that, if we're loyal to that, I think we're going to see a different horizon for American politics that's not about left or Right, but really about a bunch of pragmatic, common-sense people coming together about how do we move this nation forward together.

Senator, thank you for the time and the efforts.

Thank you, everybody. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for talking about this bill as well.

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