Transcript of Rep. Casten Discusses Republican Meltdown on Capitol Hill New

MAGA Republicans and MAGA Mike Johnson are in a panic mode as Donald Trump's term continues to collapse. MAGA Mike just held a press conference moments ago. He wants everybody to know there's always really been untoward activity on Capitol Hill. Always lots of marital affairs, lots of this. This is what MAGA Mike's talking about right now. When I think American people are saying, what's going on with our healthcare? American people are saying, what's going on with energy costs? What's going on with this unlawful and catastrophic war in Iran? And here's what MAGA Mike is doing, defending his approach to ethics on the Hill.

Here's what MAGA Mike said. Let's play.

There's, there's always been untoward activity among political figures. I mean, going back to time immemorial, right? There's always been marital infidelity, there's always been despicable behavior. It occurs to us that it may not have always been exposed and as transparent as it is today because of the very active you know, press corps. And let's go to MAGA Republican Congresswoman Lisa McClain at that same press conference. Here, play this clip.

And it is crazy to sacrifice our national economic security for woke Green New Deal talking points. So no, energy prices aren't where any of us want them to be. But energy policy is moving in the right direction because Republicans are leading with common sense.

We screwed you all over. You are all suffering, American people. We made you promises. We defrauded you. But trust us, it's moving in the right direction, even though Donald Trump said that on day one things were going to be incredibly cheap, It's going to be so amazing. Then we had MAGA Republican Congressmember Andy Ogles on the Hill bragging that what the American people are most proud about is now the United States is a dominant predator and we are a predator across all landscapes. Home of the predators. This is what he says. Play this clip.

This war, the president told me it's close to ending, but we don't know what's going to happen right now in Pakistan this afternoon. Yeah, I mean, you know, we're the dominant predator really across all landscapes. And I think the president has done an excellent job of sending a message to the world, but also Iran, that we're done. We're done with the war, you know, the exportation of terror. And look, the Persian people have an opportunity to get their country back. And so once this regime realizes, recognizes that we're not going to stop until that happens, The world is a better place.

I mean, despite the fact that that's quite the opposite of what's happened, they realize that Donald Trump's done. Trump's bored with his catastrophic war in Iran. And I think he just thinks he'll make social media posts, all caps, and that's going to do it. The Iranians are going to say, oh man, did you see his new Truth Social post and all of those caps and exclamation points? Meanwhile, MAGA Mike Johnson pushing a new initiative that I know the American people care about. He dropped a new account. The Speaker Johnson War Room, a new account drop over there. While Donald Trump is talking about things the American people certainly care about, saying, I've always been a big fan of Tim Cook, and when he called me, I said, wow, it's Tim Apple Cook! Exclamation point. How big is that? I was very impressed with myself to have the head of Apple calling to kiss my ass. I want to bring in Democratic Congressmember Sean Kasten right now. Congressmember Kasten, this is truly an existential moment for our country. And I don't say that in a hyperbolic way. People are psychologically tortured by everything this Trump regime has done.

And every day they come out there like what I shared with you there. And it looks like the season that was so bad of The Apprentice that it can never even be aired, that it's so dystopian and gross and weird. Except the reality is it's not parody. It's real life. And this is impacting so many people, especially at the pump, especially at home, especially with the unlawful war, especially with affordability. What do you make of this moment, especially when you see your colleagues— hard to even say that— but these MAGA Republicans doing that?

I mean, look, there's a very rational response I have, and I'm sure we'll get into it about, you know, what a good policy would be to actually bring energy prices down, why we haven't done it historically. You know, and frankly, some of that blame is, you know, shared around as nonpartisan. But before getting to that, like, there's, I think it is hard for, I think, to explain to the people how juvenile this administration is, but we can't normalize it. We go to, you know, we'll go to classified briefings on Iran, on Venezuela, where the entirety of the briefing is a ton of classified information. But it is basically a bunch of effectively 12-year-old boys talking about how cool it is to blow things up, giving us like inordinate detail about the weaponry and where it was located and what time it came in and from what direction and the troops who came down on a zipline like they were in a movie. And, and then when we ask questions, what is the plan? Um, what is the strategy? What, how do you define success? The Before you invaded Iran, did you look at a map and see that there's the Strait of Hormuz that oil flies through?

Did you think maybe you should top up the strategic petroleum reserve beforehand? Crickets. The entirety of the thought process is the thought process that I had when I was a 12-year-old boy and there was a fireworks store in town who would look the other way and give us M-80s and I could blow up some of my toys that I'd outgrown. I think by the time I turned 13 or 14, I was like, that's like dumb immature kid stuff. But that is how Hegseth and Rubio and Andy Ogles view the role of the United States.

And whether it's this catastrophic war, whether it's energy policy, whether it's the Department of Labor, and of course we saw their Labor Secretary, Chavez-Durhamer, who used to be a congresswoman from Oregon who changed all of her positions from being a purported moderate congress member to a MAGA extreme Mr. Trump's sycophant, and then was apparently partying in Vegas and all of these other ridiculous things that were unearthed. I mean, it's just deeply at a level before we'll get into energy policy, but like it's deeply unserious across the board, the behavior. I mean, to have the Secretary of State at a UFC fight, you know, like doing like muscle signs or whatever and fist bumping while there's negotiations taking place in Islamabad, Pakistan, and as Trump talks about triumphal arches or, you know, just any of the, just the behavior, just not serious human beings at that level before we even get into, is this good policy or is this not good policy?

Yeah, and I think, I mean, look, I want this to be over yesterday, but I think the collective project of building back is gonna be longer than any of us want it to be. I've had conversations with, foreign, I think still our allies, I don't know, but foreign partners of the United States who have said that they are now thinking about the United States with respect to intelligence sharing in the same way that they have long thought about the United States on climate change. Namely, we trust you when Democrats are in power, but we now have to wonder whether the information we provide with you You will be safe when a future Republican comes into power. And so we just have to treat you a little differently. Um, and like, think about how long it takes to restore that, because it is very hard to make the case right now that Trump is an anomaly. It's hard to make the case that he doesn't speak for the values of every elected Republican in Washington when they're all bowing the knee to him. And it's very hard to make the case that a future Republican president— because once There will be another one.

Who will that be who will actually comport themselves? And I shudder to say this, who will comport themselves with the dignity of George Bush II, much less George Bush I, right?

Yeah, you know, and going to, you know, domestic energy policy, for example, as you mentioned, this should be bipartisan, you know, and when you looked at Climate Power's New Energy Crisis Snapshot, I don't view that— I don't— shouldn't be a Democratic issue or Republican. It should be an American issue. We should want to be the leaders of the world of clean energy because not only does it help the environment, it helps the economy and it can bring down inflation. And when we have the largest oil supply shock in history, which, by the way, people are kind of pretending that that's not really happening right now, like the Strait of Hormuz is still closed. Why would we be attacking alternative forms of energy that bring down the prices? And that's a major part of why inflation you know, is now surging. And then you hear what the response is from Trump and MAGA. Yeah, it'll get better in the future, maybe 2027, 2028. Just trust me, bro. Trust me.

Um, as a guy who spent 20 years in the clean energy industry, um, if I was still there, I would love Trump's foreign policy because it raises the price of of dirtier energy sources and makes it easier to sell clean energy. And I would hate his domestic policy because his domestic policy blocks companies from investing in precisely those technologies that would mitigate the adverse effects of his foreign policy. The Climate Power Report you'd mentioned, you know, says that we've lost $180,000— $180,000 jobs in the clean energy sector and $62 billion of investment, with a B, has gone away. Solely as a result of Trump's domestic energy policies. I almost— it almost makes me sad that this is under the headline of a climate power report because we then view that through the lens of, well, these are clean jobs, those are Democratic jobs. In fact, most of those jobs were in Republican districts because everybody wants cheap energy, right? Those jobs were being— were being built because the things that America wants are things that means that you don't have to be exposed to volatile prices at the pump. You don't have to be exposed to volatile prices, you know, from electricity.

You don't have to be exposed to volatile natural gas costs if you've got a well-insulated home and, you know, solar panels on the roof and, you know, maybe an electric vehicle in the driveway. You don't have to do that. But let's give you access to those technologies and let's prioritize them in the United States. Now, we're not doing that. You have seen a surge of investment by China in clean energy. Um, you know, before Elon went crazy, Tesla was the largest EV seller in the world. That was a U.S. company. Now BYD is the largest seller in the country. Um, we were starting to build a domestic battery chain, a domestic solar chain. Those, those industries are now being disfavored by the Trump administration, but the rest of the world would like to not be beholden to U.S. energy policy, and so they're not buying from China. It is insane. We are driving investment out of the United States, driving jobs out of the United States, all to benefit the tiny minority of Americans who make their money when the price of oil goes up, when the price of gas goes up, because they own a well.

The overwhelming majority of Americans, in fact every American, benefits when the price of energy goes down. Why is it partisan to look out for them?

And why is it? I mean, is, is, uh, question that we could probably spend hours talking about though. Is it that the, you know, but even when you speak with people in the oil lobby and you speak to people, even they now, I mean, in many times recognize that there needs to be some diversification. I mean, trust me, I mean, they want to protect their, you know, they want the way of the past. But even when you hear some things, it's like even they think sometimes it's going too extreme. So, you know, but Trump talks about his hatred of windmills. You know, he is infatuated with his hatred of climate change. Clean energy. He lies and says that China isn't doing these things that they're doing and that they're dominating in the world now as a result of it. So what's your diagnosis? Is it just the strength of the lobby and the way things were in the past? Or what, what, what, what is the hold of it? Because this is jobs. This is jobs in MAGA Republican Congress members' districts, regardless of if they're Trump sycophants.

This is—

this should not be Democrat, Republican.

Well, so I think, and I think this is a place where I think we can all benefit from some empathy. After the Inflation Reduction Act was passed, I was part of a delegation that was at the climate conference in Egypt, and our first meeting was with President Sisi of Egypt. And interestingly enough, he was chastising us for the Inflation Reduction Act because he said that as a result of that bill, lots of global capital was now flowing to the United States that used to flow to the Global South, and it was going to make it harder for, you know, you know, folks like him to transition their economies and grow them and become part of the, you know, the first world. And I said to him in response, you know, we're not going to apologize for investing in the United States, but if you stopped subsidizing your fossil fuel sector, it would— you would you would remove the distortion that keeps capital from flowing into your country. And a lot of those dollars that are now flowing in from the IRA, you could, you know, you could be competing on the merits. And his response was, if I stop subsidizing the fossil fuel sector, I'm going to have huge numbers of unemployed young men, and that is going to create a potent recruiting tool for the Muslim Brotherhood.

Now, we can view that as the cynical response of an Egyptian president, and, you know, all the corruption of the Egyptian government. Or I think we can view that with some empathy and say, what would happen if we really unlock cheap energy in the United States, if we got the thousands of gigawatts of solar and wind and batteries that once— that's sitting there waiting in the queue to be interconnected to the grid and brought it online? Well, that's going to make it a lot harder for coal plants to compete. It's going to cause a lot of young men in Appalachian coal seams or, you know, the Bakken oil shale that John Thune represents or the, you know, the the LNG export terminals that Mike Johnson represents. It's going to cause a lot of those young men to lose their jobs, and that is going to be a potent recruiting tool for the Proud Boys. Right. So I think there is that understandable tension of when you have been so focused for so long on putting the interests of energy producers over the interests of energy consumers, ripping that Band-Aid off is politically disruptive. And, you know, in the Inflation Reduction Act, that was a part of the reason why we put all those additional incentives for energy transition communities.

Let's, you know, let's, let's make it more attractive to, you know, to build the battery plant, you know, where there used to be a coal mine to create jobs for that community, to help them bring the Walmart back into town. And, you know, and you can see that in this Climate Power Report, the— I got to see if I can find the right page, but more than, more than 50% of the projects that have been cut, more than 50% of the jobs that have been lost have been in red parts of the country. That's not because the Biden administration was saying, I, I got to give this to my political opponents. It's because extractive America, it's not synonymous, but it rhymes with red America. Productive America is not synonymous, but it rhymes with blue America. And so if we're going to really put consumers first, you know, it's going to hurt places like Kentucky, like West Virginia, like the Gulf Coast. It's going to benefit places like New York and Chicago and California, you know, the places that really dominate our economy. And we are all Americans, right? And if we're looking out to benefit all Americans, that's going to be fine.

But the Republicans just can't get out of their own way on this.

What do we do right now? I mean, in this moment, obviously Republicans control, you know, both chambers. That may change in a little bit. But what do you— as you look forward more generally, what's your— I mean, you know this area probably more than anybody, you know, on the Hill, given your background. Like, what do you want the American people who are watching this right now, who see the chaos that I showed at the beginning of what MAGA Republicans— there's a lot of distractions and sometimes energy policy is not top of mind, although price at the pump is top of mind, but thinking more holistically about making that connection. So what do you say to people before we go?

So look, politically, we've got to win the election. The way we win the election is by converting people. You know, I'm grateful for what you do and this network does to, to make space for people who voted differently in the past, but they can come back into the fold. You know, I, you know, I remind people all the time that if you loved Ronald Reagan's immigration policy, there's plenty of room for you in the Democratic Party. If you love George H.W. Bush's foreign policy, there's plenty of room for you in the Democratic Party. You know, you can, you can hold— if you love Richard Nixon's environmental policy, there's plenty of room for you, right? So you can hold all of those Republican beliefs and come back in. Once we do that, you know, once we win, I think, you know, we get the gavels back, we do oversight. I think we have to have an energy policy that ambiguously puts the interests of consumers first and is not confused about whether that should be a priority of US energy policy. And then I think we just need to keep— well, let me say outside of the political realm, because most of your people listening are probably not elected officials.

The cheapest forms of energy are the cleanest forms of energy. And yes, maybe, you know, our political environment federally is doing less than it used to do, but that just means everybody else has to step up. There is nobody who has a solar panel on their roof who regrets that economic decision, because every day that the sun is shining, that's a cheaper source of power. You know, there's nobody who has an electric vehicle in the driveway who says, man, if the price of gasoline was a little lower, I'll probably not be able to afford to drive my EV, right? Those are, those are always the cheaper technologies. So anything we can do in our homes and our schools and our businesses and our communities to deploy that capital is going to give you an extremely attractive long-term asset. And that's an investment for your own selfish interest. It's also an investment in the United States and the US economy.

Congressman Casten, thanks for joining us. We appreciate you and taking us on this journey from what I showed at the beginning with MAGA Mike to just some common sense policy, which frankly really shouldn't matter regardless of your political party. We just gotta be smart as a nation. We gotta think through things again. We gotta plan and we just gotta be grownups. Grown-ups. I mean, be adults in the room right now. Thanks for joining us, Congressman.

Thanks for having me.

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