YouSaid · the spoken record

Pete Aguilar

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2024-02-29

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2024-02-29

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1. “Because Congress is a place where you want to do big things, whether you're red team or blue team, you wanna help, you want to do things. And oftentimes my critique, one of my critiques of Republicans is they are not trying to find a way to get to yes. They're just trying to find a way to mess things up, to slow things down without actually saying no.”

   2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

2. “Of the United States needs to do more of that. And there are serious legislators on the other side who do want to do that. But I will tell you, the number is diminishing.”

   2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

3. “and actually help people. And I don't know how you fix that. And so I think my focus has been not on fixing that necessarily. I don't know if there's a fix for that, but we can marginalize that behavior by passing laws and by working in a collaborative way. And so that's why I have tried to be the person who Republicans feel comfortable reaching out to. And I think I've got a track record to prove that where we can work on things, where we can disagree on topics A, B, and C. But you know what? On D and E, you know, I'm working with you and we're in this together and I trust you and you'll be honest with me and I'll be honest with you and we can try to find a solution. That doesn't mean that we're going to agree on all that other stuff, but it means that we can at least be collegial and we can work on what's in front of us.”

   2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

4. “who are those individuals who are looked at and revered and respected on both sides of the aisle where the American public says, I believe that person. And so that's why I would tell you the work that you're doing here, the work the journalism is doing here to kind of give you that grounding and focus to be truth tellers and to do it in a fair and honest way is so important and so impactful. We need those people in order for our system to work. We have to have those storytellers and truth tellers on TV. But to David's question, it is hard. It is hard in the social media world. It is hard when there are some...”

   2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

5. “I think it's a great question. And I don't know if I can answer this with that, like Walter Cronkite, you know, 82 font right above me without also mentioning that there aren't people like Mr. Cronkite, there aren't folks outside of, of course, David Axelrod on CNN.”

   2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

6. “All I can tell you is the Democratic Caucus has just been so amazing throughout all of this. But to learn from Hakeem Jeffries and Catherine Clark and I all learned from Nancy Pelosi and Stenny Hoyer. We sat at the leadership table, the broader leadership table with that group. We learned from them. We hold them up. They are the Mount Rushmore of democratic politicians to come out of the house. The Democratic Caucus has just treated us so well and been so open. To that, and all guided by the focus too. And I think to a person, the Democratic Caucus will tell you, our mission, our job, our focus is to make sure a Democrat holds the White House, but to also make sure that Hakeem Jeffries becomes Speaker of the House next year.”

   2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

7. “Absolutely. And what sometimes isn't connected to Why the Republican Party, why House Republicans and Donald Trump are so soft on Putin, I just don't understand. But it is true. And where this is impactful and meaningful for us here back home is, you know, if Putin's march continues and we are dragged into this in Poland through NATO, it's going to be Americans who are boots on the ground and serving and that is one thing that every policymaker at every level, it is the most difficult decision to ever make. And we want to prevent that from happening and supporting Ukraine in the fight for democracy here. Helps ensure that that doesn't happen”

   2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

8. “Procedural and mechanisms in which we can force a vote. Either way, back to my original point, the American people deserve us to vote on this up or down. And I'm confident that there are 300 votes in the House of Representatives to pass this national security aid package.”

   2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

9. “That's a different question. It's a different question, but it's important to note the House of Representatives functions in a majority-run institution. If the speaker does not want something to happen, if a majority of members do not want an outcome, they can generally stop it from happening. Now, what we need government funding is another big issue coming forward, but this national security supplemental... Ukraine aid, Israel aid, humanitarian assistance to Gaza, Indo-Pacific priorities. The national security imperatives are so important and so impactful. What we need are reasonable colleagues to step up and either push the speaker to put this on the floor for an up or down vote or join with us to try to figure out”

   2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

10. “Texted, I texted my police chief and said, can you give me a little bit of help? And so they put a cop car at my door in my home just to make sure because we didn't know what was happening. We didn't know, is this a coordinated attempt? Is this not? And at that point, the leadership had been whisked away. And basically our conference and caucus was being led. We were in one big room in the Longworth building and it was Hakeem Jeffries and Liz Cheney, who were the chairs of their conferences, the highest ranking members. This is a distinction Hakeem talks about. He was the highest ranking member without a detail. Because once you have the detail, they take you to safety. They have to, but that was our experience in story.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

11. “I did. I did. And she tried not to, she was watching it on TV and she was trying not to alarm me. East Coast, West Coast, so it's still a little earlier. But she woke up the kids and this teenage boys, again, I'm sorry, you know, they're sleeping in at 10 a.m. And she woke them up and said, something's happening at the Capitol. You need to know about this. I'm texting your dad. We're okay. And then it was later in the afternoon another member had said, I don't know if we're all safe. And members with...”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

12. “And then you hear bang on the door. And then at that point, we were escorted out. And I didn't have the toughest day. The people who had the toughest time, aside from our brave law enforcement officials, were the members in the gallery. So that gallery group, because of COVID restrictions, as I told you, members were told, if you want to watch and you're not invited to be on the floor, go to the gallery. And at one point, Mitt Romney was up in the gallery and the joint proceeding. But the members, it was all Democratic members who stuck in there and they got trapped basically. They spent eight minutes. They got evacuated eight minutes later than we did. It was a long eight minutes. That's when Ashley Babbitt was shot. That's when, you know, protesters were running around. I mean, it was real. And a lot of those members have talked about that experience.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

13. “I remember showing Colin Alridd, the tweet that said protesters are in the building. And in my mind, I felt that this was like someone running onto a baseball field. Someone's going to break in. They're going to get tackled by 12 people, and then it's over. And we just didn't know until we started hearing sounds in the hallway and until the sergeant in arms came over and said, you know, we're suspending these operations. Then the chaplain came and did a prayer. And I'm like, where am I at? And what is going on here? And then I keep a little red book with me at times and scribble some notes. And I didn't write much. I wish I wrote more that day, but at the time I wrote at 2.37 p.m., I wrote, I'm a little scared. And, you know, to me, that was just like, I didn't know what was going to happen.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

14. “And so I'm on the house floor and all we have really is Twitter, but even not every member is kind of scrolling through this. We didn't know, to be honest with you, 80%, a large percentage of people on the house floor had no idea what was going on outside because we got to work early. We showed up. It's this exercise. We knew there were going to be some challenges. We knew Republicans were going to challenge the count. We're prepared. We're figuring out who's going to speak and all of those pieces. But we got there at 11 o'clock on the House floor and this is hours later that the mob had come. And I remember kind of texting friends and people texting, are you okay? And I said, and I thought everything's fine. And then it was.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

15. “She had asked the police chief. We've heard these things. What do you say? And their comment was every eventuality had been thought through. And it made me feel comfortable because I believe law enforcement, if they tell you that you're going to be safe and that things have been thought through, then I default to that. And so we get there.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

16. “I didn't, and my experience, I was on the house chamber. It was because of COVID rules, it was a limited number. We were not supposed to have more than, I think, 40, 60 people on the house floor. Republicans didn't observe that, by the way. And so they had more people on the floor than we did. We were spaced out. And Colin Alridd was near me. And Sean Patrick Maloney was behind him. I was behind Jamie Raskin right on the aisle. Like when they introduced the president for the State of the Union, like that aisle, I was like right there, third row. And the interesting thing in the lead up to this, Zolofgrin had asked the question in her role as house administration that oversees the Capitol Police. And I remember specifically being on a conference call where”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

17. “Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and it just came down to the big lie. And what we proved time and time again is, you know, the president even knew that he had not won the election. He had told people that, but it was this act that he was portraying and going out in public and whipping up the crowd and telling people to come on January 6th. It'll be wild All of those things just kind of fed into it. And then it shouldn't be lost on any of us. The Republican Party made hundreds of millions of dollars after the election in November and December under the auspices of recounts and helping us prove that we won I raised $200 million in a short period of time. And because it whipped up their crowd.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

18. “It does. It troubles me as an American, not just as a Democrat. I mean, as a politician, I mean, it troubles me as an American that he can say something, whether that's level of threat to somebody or tell people to take a different position, i.e. immigration that we talked about, and that people will follow him and people will do what he says. But that is also the story of January 6th. He told people, come to Washington. And we will fix this. That is what he, and we interviewed and deposed dozens and dozens of people who were just kind of caught up in it, but they firmly believed that they were doing what the president did.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

19. “It's important. The focus of the January 6th Committee was that we get to the truth and that people are held accountable. And at every level, we wanted accountability. And through our work, we found that the president was ultimately responsible and a key player in this pressure campaign and deserves a measure of accountability. That's what I'm focused on. That's what I want. The Justice Department, the Justice System will work if he is held accountable. Timelines and...”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

20. “I wish the indictments would have come sooner either way. I think we, and I think the Department of Justice would even agree that they have looked at our depositions, they read the material that we made public, that that was something that was helpful for them.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

21. “Mine was Mike Pence, and that's when we ran the footage and a staffer on the committee who works for me now found out the mob was 40 feet from Mike Pence. And we didn't at that time, we didn't know that until we looked at the video, until we talked to them and the testimony and Mike Pence's team. how clearly and crisply we talked about that and we put that in terms that people can understand and how Mike Pence started his day you know leading a prayer circle with his senior staff and he ended his day getting you know the Bible verse you know from his team that you know run the race and you served and and just everything that that In between that was his day. and that the former president put on him to shame him, to try to violate the Constitution was just so striking.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

22. “Well, fake electors was one of the the the the the the the the the the themes that was so impactful the georgia pressure campaigns all of these pieces”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

23. “It was unique. There weren't, and you've been around these congressional hearings, David. Usually every member gets five minutes to ask their questions, right? And some people make it newsworthy and whether that's with whiteboards or with speeches, they find a way to communicate in a crisp and effective way in five minutes. And that is a skill. But what we stepped back and said is a committee, what's most effective? Is that structure work? And do we have to do that structure? And what we decided was, look, we can do it any way we want. And so Benny Thompson basically assigned each member a hearing. And that was your hearing. You were responsible for the content of that hearing, the flow of that hearing, the questions of that hearing, and the witnesses. And so we had these themes. And my hearing was...”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

24. “And so I thought that the committee just did such a good job in conveying the information that we received from the depositions in such a digestible way that it was a tribute to the professionalism of the committee staff.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

25. “It's true. She will use whatever she needs to. The importance of the committee, though, in investigating and finding out what happened on January 6th, not just to protect democracy, but to tell the full and complete story. And I thought that Chairman Benny Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney, we spent so much time together. But as we told that story, one of the things I suggested at the beginning was 30% of the country is going to love what we do no matter what it comes out as. And 30% of the country isn't going to believe it. And it's how we speak to that 40% during these hearings that is going to matter because some people are only going to watch five minutes and some people are going to watch one hearing, but they're not going to watch any others.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

26. “It is, and so she paused and she said, Okay, but you'll do it, right? I said, yes, Madam Speaker, I'll do it. And she said, this was at 10.30 at night. And she said, okay, be in my office at 9 o'clock tomorrow. We have a 10 a.m. press conference where I'm announcing that you're on the committee. And she said, and you can't tell anyone. I said, can I tell my wife? Can I tell Alicia? And she paused and she says, Yeah, you can tell Alicia. I said, I feel this kind of impacts her.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

27. “And I said, Well, I don't know, I don't, just due to this leadership role, I don't know if I want that. And I don't know if I want to deal with the death threats and, you know, with the young family. Yeah.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

28. “I did not do that. And so Speaker Pelosi called me and said, we created this committee. I've heard from a lot of your colleagues who want to serve. I said, that's great. Democratic caucus is full of amazing people, and we will find great folks to serve on this committee. And she says, why haven't I heard from you? And I said, well, speak.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

29. “And so, but I was vice chair of the Democratic Caucus. I was helping out. I was new to this leadership role. And that was taking a lot of time. And Speaker Pelosi called and said, you know, we created this commission. And by the way, stepping back, Stephanie wanted, I want it, all of us. We wanted a bipartisan 9-11 style commission, right? And Mitch McConnell walked into the Senate and said, you know, do me a favor and vote against this bipartisan plan to investigate January 6th. And so at that point, Speaker Pelosi felt we can't ignore this. We have to do something, even if it's just us. That's the point at which people started advocating and raising their hands and saying that they would want to serve.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

30. “on the committee. And I remember sitting at, I remember the call Nancy Pelosi gave me. And this was something that, and Stephanie wanted to be on the committee. She wanted to be on the January 16th.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

31. “In public life, this could be something that is the most important. And so I just wanted to do it right. I just want, and just this drive to just make sure. And one thing that I tried to do, I know you had Stephanie Murphy, my former colleague, who was on that.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

32. “How much time do we have? It was such an important experience. And I think the best way to summarize it was just the volume of work that we had to accomplish. And I'll tell a story about getting on the committee too here in a minute. But my wife had told me this could be the most important thing that you ever do. And so just make sure that you do it right.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

33. “We're committed. We're committed as a family to help make the region. And the country is a better place, and it's something we feel passionate about, and we talk to our kids about. So it was a very public way to fail, but it taught me a lot. But from a raw political perspective that you can appreciate, I mean, after the maps were redrawn, we weren't given a ton of time. I ran a 19-week campaign. And you just can't do that. And so having an opportunity to run a 19-month campaign after that was much easier and something that we were able to do. The same result almost happened again, actually. But it's just a raw math issue when it comes to this jungle primary. If you are in a low turnout district and four Democrats are splitting the vote and two Republicans are there, this is just math. It is not politics. It is not...”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

34. “Was it hard look? I mean, we've talked about sports being formative. I don't like losing it anything. I don't like losing playing pickleball. I don't like losing playing board games with the kids. I don't like losing at all. And to lose at this level and what was seen in such a public way did stick with me and it hurt. But the opportunity to serve the opportunity to do well by my community, I still knew fundamentally that we needed a democratic voice at the table representing this region, that this was a democratic seat and should be, and that there were things that needed to be done. And so I didn't just jump in right away. I took some time to reflect, to talk to the family. I'm not sure. If Alicia's secret ballot still holds your wife on what my wife wanted.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

35. “Everything that is going on within the four walls of that city because people are holding you accountable for it. And they're holding you accountable on a daily basis if you're going to shopping, you're going to the supermarket, you're walking around town. People know you and they expect.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

36. “I love that job. I mean, and I have just such respect for all of our local officials at every level. I mean, you have to navigate these issues in a nonpartisan way. And what you have to do is you just have to focus on what's the solution. How do we solve these issues? And that's what I loved about it is being part of a group of five individuals who genuinely were focused on it. We all had, we knew generally how we were voting for president, you know, between the five of us. And that's fine. We set that aside. And it was like, how do we reinvest in infrastructure? How do we create a better park system? How do we plan for the future? We were one of the first cities to have a climate action plan just because it was the right thing to do. I mean, just those little things that are so impactful, but you also have to know as mayor, you have to know everything.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

37. “Keeping in mind that each of those, you know, to get on the city council, I only needed to count to three votes at the time. That was a vacancy. So I do much better at counting votes when it's in smaller numbers, David. So fill the vacancy at the time for members of the city council. I think it was 14 of us who applied. I was by far the youngest and applying former city commissioners and things applied. And I just kind of shared my story and all of the members of the council knew me. And I was very mindful that I didn't have to be everybody's first choice. But if I was everybody's second choice, that might also work. And so the importance of counting votes.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

38. “And worked in the governor's regional office representing the area I now serve in the kind of broader two-county inland empire area, the area that I was raised in, we're 65 miles from downtown LA, often in the shadows of LA and working class communities. And I just loved it. I loved representing the governor in that area. I knew it well. But in this role, I had to work with elected Republicans and chambers of commerce and business people. And I think it just taught me so much about the kind of broader layers of the community, the grassroots organizers, the community leaders, the faith leaders. And so then that just added to all of everything that I had done and just gave me an ability to kind of speak to folks.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

39. “The star of the show was a great guy. And so it was just, this was just a moment and a time that I just enjoyed. And I got back to Southern California and I wanted to do politics. I didn't know what that meant. My parents voted every election, but they didn't know what professions were associated with it. And so I worked through a friend, Roger Salazar, who's in Sacramento, was a University of Rutlands alum, and Clinton Gore guyed on a bunch of races. He got me hooked up with Governor Gray Davis, and so I interned for Governor Davis my senior year in high school. And then they offered me a gig. So right after, I think I graduated on Saturday and I think I started work on maybe Wednesday.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

40. “We had West Wing parties. People weren't allowed to talk. There was no DVR. We were very, very mean. Couldn't talk. You had to leave if you wanted to talk about something. Bradley Whitford I have shared with him that this is so important.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

41. “I interned. The second time I got in an airplane was to intern in Washington, D.C. is a summer program through the University of Redlands. And then I came back and I was just kind of bit by the political bug between interning and this was another big piece of my life at this point was West Wing, the show West Wing.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

42. “Did my first job was I was a head start teacher's aide for my first year only because, well, I had a big family, I liked kids, but I had a vehicle and a lot of kids at school don't have vehicles. So I had a vehicle and I got to drive to Head Start and I was Mr. Pete. And that is still a nickname that some people who went to college with me still call me Mr. Pete. And then my sophomore year, I worked at Habitat for Humanity. There was a campus chapter that existed. We kind of brought it back to life. We had faculty builds. We had student builds. And so organizing students and faculty and friends on Saturday mornings to help. And I was handy. My uncle was worked a lot, roofers. and landscapers and come from a family that does a lot of work. And so I enjoyed it and was. Ended up serving on Habitats Board locally and enjoyed my time.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

43. “Yeah, I was really just drawn to that mission and that focus and the university is one of the few places. They also required you to have a community service component to graduate. And I was just kind of drawn to that and taken by that.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

44. “He was. And he's a great human being. But it was important informative for me because I wanted to take action. I wanted to make the world a better place. I saw something that I didn't like. I didn't know what to do, but I didn't want to ignore it”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

45. “That's enough to get you on the ballot in some And so none of the kids signed it. Only aunts, uncles. And then I took it to school and I had teachers sign it. And then I went door to door in my neighborhood. And these neighbors had no idea what to do with me. But they knew me. I was playing baseball and riding my bike in the street. And they're like, look, you want me to sign something and not buy anything? Like, I'm in. Like if you're not selling me any cookies or candy for Little League, then I'm in. So I ended up, then my uncle said one last thing. He said, send it registered mail. So, you know that they received it, right? And so it had the little postcard on it that they received it. Somebody signed for it at some point to be put in the PO box or something. I never got a sounds like you.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

46. “Well, I wrote a letter. So I wrote a letter to the CEO of Exxon. And then I went to, I told you full circle, right? My family meets every weekend generally, or they did as a kid. And my uncle John Tells me on that weekend, he says, Well, you know what you should do? You should do a petition. If you really want people to know what you're doing, you should do a petition. I said, well, I don't know what a petition is. He said, well, you wrote a letter. Now get people to sign on that they agree with your letter, that something needs to be done and they need to be held accountable. And so I think I rewrote my letter even. And then I have my relatives all sign it. I didn't let any kids sign it. Sounds like you had a big family.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

47. “You know, it's a question my mom asks a lot. But this is the story she tells of when she knew I was a little different. In her words. But it was nine years old. And there was only, you know, eight or nine channels on TV, right? And the Exxon Valdez happens. 11 million gallons of crude oil spill into the Alaska waters. And I was just so kind of taken with the images of the wildlife and then the stories of this captain and just the raw negligence of this company. But I didn't know what to do about it.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

48. “Lives before they acknowledge that an elected official, the president, any politician is helping create X amount of jobs. And we need to connect those dots for people. And I just don't know if that's possible without addressing really core issues that people face, rising health care costs. We were able to lower the insulin costs for seniors, but only for seniors. There's more work to be done there. But housing specifically is something that we need to focus on and work on.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

49. “Yeah, no, and absolutely. And Democrats and the president need to as well talk about where people feel in their own lives and acknowledge that there are rising costs that people feel. And at times it feels like that opportunity is slipping away. Most specifically, I think for Arizonans and for Southern Californians, the common denominator for a lot of us is on housing and affordable housing and people feeling that their kids aren't going to have an opportunity to live in the communities in which they were raised. And that has to be something that we talk about from a policy perspective. We've had legislative solutions within Build Back Better that didn't go anywhere. And I'll give credit to Maxine Waters and a lot of House Democrats who worked on these things. But we need to people need to feel more comfortable in their”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

50. “I think, and again, I think we have to really break into the numbers and talk about sub-regions, the South Florida community is very, very different than the South Arizona community. So understanding all of that. But I do think that there is such an important story to tell on behalf of the president here. Creation of 14 million jobs, the investment here in Arizona from the Chips and Science Act alone, $2 billion coming to onshore jobs that for 30 years have been leaving the country, the record number of opportunities for job creation is so real and the president has to take credit for that. And within the Latino community, this is a lot of workforce jobs. These are jobs that our kids can't.”

    2024-02-29 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 570 — Rep. Pete Aguilar · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source