YouSaid · the spoken record

Ron Wyden

lines on the record: 91
first: 2025-02-10
most recent: 2025-02-10
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“To make sure people know about it, and this last campaign was particularly hard because we made a big change in candidate, you know, very late in the game, and it's pretty hard to get your issues out that way. And we can do better.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm going to continue to say that it's possible to make this temporary and we can move on, but it's only going to come about with good ideas and then political organizing that will have to mobilize people all across the country. I mean, you can't fake the price of eggs. You know, Donald Trump's got a problem. And if we pound that issue. Specific policy matter. And remember, I am going to talk until I run out of larynx space about him saying he was going to lower food prices. And then two weeks later he put up the, you know, the white flag of surrender. Now the homeowner is worried about the price of eggs and, you know, you can't fake that stuff. We're going to do the best policy and work like hell.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Certainly makes me reflect on the policy that I've always said, which is if you ask me, and it comes up at a town hall meeting all the time, I say the best politics, folks, is good policy because you get in a position to be able to win people over for the right reasons and the like. And the reality is that these are really serious questions that don't lend themselves to any kind of quick thought. I just think that the reality is that we have to be ready to battle on both fronts. Let's get the best policy ideas that we can and then let work like hell to have the grassroots support in order to get them passed.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know, I will tell you this I may ask you for your advice, I mean this sincerely, and we'll wrap up this last question. The verge is always only cared about policy issues. This has been like a thing that we say. We write about policy, not politics, because policy is important to people, it is real, but it seems like here in 2025, politics and policy are the same thing. Do you feel that that's a change?”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Bring that all the way back around to the top, Elon Musk, who may or may not be running part of our government, has significant ties to China, right? Tesla, it's a huge market for Tesla. He builds batteries.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think that's a fair kind of judgment. I mean, look, we understand that we have national security interests and we're also certainly trying to compete with these people all over the world. And I think rethinking this through is a sensible idea. And I think we can't stop China from getting chips, but we can certainly notice if it's more expensive. We can make it more expensive”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“On the same note, right? I mean, that's obviously offensive, but on the same note, the notion that we would ban them from having our chips and that that would keep them from competing in AI, I don't know if that worked, right? Like, I honestly am looking at Deepseek and saying, okay, well, they constraint breeds creativity. They got really creative, and they built a cheaper model that performs as well as our most expensive models. Do you think that it's time to rethink that approach to technology limitation?”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that a bunch of the big companies, you mentioned Microsoft, all said that they were taking care of things and tried to lull people through it. And it wasn't until the Chinese actually got away with it. Anybody woke up and said, oh my goodness, Mildred, we've got a problem.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The Chinese, and let me because I think we're probably wrapping up Priest, and let me just mention the Chinese are engaged in all kinds of abusive practices. I mean, Salt Typhoon, for example. I mean, the phone companies were supposed to have secured the phones 20 years ago. And I've been screaming my lungs out about it. I'll be introducing another bill on this because a bunch of conservatives in the Congress when this latest set of breaches took place said this is the biggest hack in American history. Well, I'm going to make sure that we get another debate at this whole set of abuses, assault typoon, my bill be going in soon.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The real message is how important open source is, you know, open source communications have got to be the ballgame and I've continued to push them through all my time in public life and it's even more important today than it was.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Small business. In fact, small business and users, the two people that I fought for in the tech space are going to be my vision for the Democratic Party going forward. You can count on that.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let me tell you what I think a bunch of these big tech companies are saying. Yes, they didn't like the policies or the Biden administration, but they're seeing more and more, particularly young people. You see it in schools. You see it in TikTok and the like who want to have their own businesses. They want to be entrepreneurs. They want to be the future. And I think that big businesses who don't pay attention to the small guys that have ideas and creative approaches, they're going to be making a mistake because that's who I'm throwing in with. I'm throwing in with the little guys because I think they can make a big, big difference. And, you know, Biden was a big opponent of mine in technology for 30 years. I don't think that just being for big, big tech is the Democratic Party. I think being for small business is going to be the future of the Democratic Party.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Have you heard from that constituency at all from the big tech companies? What I have heard from their executives very directly is that they thought the Biden administration hated them, that they could not work with Biden at all. They couldn't even get the meetings they needed or that people can get the meetings the right people. And what they generally got was we're going to break you up. And then there were a lot of lawsuits aimed at breaking them up. What you might still get out of the Trump administration is we'll break you up, but you might be able to buy your way out of it.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If you look at the Hutzpah rule, you say you'll work with anybody, regardless of political philosophy, and work with them in order to get the public interest. And I think that if Trump equals chaos, we got more to work with than people think.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There's a big split right now in the tech community. You have a lot of regular workers at the big tech companies who are horrified at what's happening. And then you have their bosses who all showed up and sat at the inauguration and are trying to get various things at the Trump administration. As you said, I think they realize they can just write checks and get what they want. But their interests are not aligned, right? I don't think Tim Cook's interests and Mark Zuckerberg's interests are aligned. I don't even think they like each other. I don't know if Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk like each other. I think they're pretty ferociously competitive about their rockets and general cowboy demeanors. So it goes. Is that a split that you see that you that can be exploited for political gain here? The interests of tech, which now has taken over, are not actually aligned?”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Come on, Blue Sky, love it. But I mean, if you want somebody who's just going to say, all I'm going to do all day is hang crepe because it's hopeless. I'm the wrong guy. I'm a 29-year-old Jewish kid who wanted to play in the NBA. That was a ridiculous idea. I got a scholarship and I couldn't get that dream. And I ended up being one of the youngest people getting elected to Congress by being an incumbent. Guess who else did that not very long ago? AOC again beating incredible odds. So, you know, you're talking about ways in which you can really make a difference and beat the odds. And frankly, it takes a lot of hoots, but to do it because people say it's hard to beat the powerful and the money, but I just gave you some examples of doing it.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Talking to you, and you guys get the you got There you go. I hate to hammer on it, but you can see the bigger picture, which is you have a Brennan car at the FCC putting pressure on legacy broadcast media. You have Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk telling their algorithms what to do and what kind of media to disseminate and what's acceptable speech and not. You have a TikTok sale in the offing that could go to a Trump loyalist. Is there an alternative media? Do you look at Blue Sky and say, okay, decentralized social media will provide a necessary check?”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm talking to you. And you guys get the message out. And this guy's working to make these changes that we're talking about. He's got a book that tells you how you can do more of it.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, but they're also. We're going to build between now and 2026 every single day. It's not sitting around and waiting. Every single day, as many wins on these issues, on matters people care about. When we did that during the first term, at the midterm, we gained a few seats, and then two years later, we beat them all together. So this is not going to be an easy walk in the park. But I've been part of efforts where I was able to beat incredible odds, which is what Hutzpah is about. Hutzpah's being about bold and taking on big odds and reaching out and finding people from all points of view. That's what we're going to be doing.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The book is really about pushing for progressive political change. You have a history of doing that. I think the question that is just on everyone's mind right now is when the other side doesn't seem to care and you can't reach their constituents because they own the media platforms and their algorithms are driving all kinds of views that honestly just dismiss any concerns or turn Democrats or any opposition at all into cartoon characters. How do you drive that kind of change, that grassroots change? Because you have a lot of people who voted against their own interests here, right? They voted for cheaper. Egg prices, and they're getting Trump saying they'll understand when tariffs drive prices up.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The book, for example, gives twelve rules Ron's twelve rules a hutspah that describe how not just people are looking at past examples but essentially how you can use the rules that are outlined in the book to make a difference. That was the first rule that we used yesterday was fight bad things, make a difference in terms of speaking out for good things and above all make noise”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Later, use that, you know, the way we were the architect or the PIPA sopa movement when all the power, all the money. Without trying to redesign the internet for the big guys, I organized a lot of grassroots groups and we set a date for a vote. Harry, read and suddenly 15 million texts and emails came in and we beat all the money. So the point really is you're saying, do you see all of this happening yet? When I was with the activists yesterday at the Treasury talking about trying to rein in. Musk, I said, This is really stunning. This is less than five full days after I blew the whistle on the problem. And look, we got thousands of people in the streets and 30 legislators. So put me down as continuing to believe that citizens who mobilize can make a difference. That's what I describe in the book.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's very early. I gave you some examples where we had some effect, but let me give you the bottom line here. I think very rarely does political change start in Washington, DC and then trickle down. I believe it's almost always in exactly the opposite direction. When people at home get concerned about access to communications they care about and whether they're getting plobbered by tariffs and the like, then they go to their elected officials. They'll see them in a grocery store. They'll see them at the gas station. They'll see them someplace and say, what the hell are you doing? I'm getting clobbered on that. And you end up making change. It's a kind of grassroots juggernaut setting in that really changes. And, you know, I probably as much as any ledger.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, the best way to do it is by statute, and we'll see if any of these rural Republicans whose farmers really like those services in the morning are going to stand up for them. I mean, this is really what we're describing is continued good business for the big guys. And they're doing all the things possible to run out their competition. And that includes virtually everything you can see. I'm trying to find new ways to get voices for people who don't have power and cloud have joined with a Republican trying to get more streaming services. So we're. We're busy looking for all them options, getting C SPAN out and streaming.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Brendan Carr is now targeting NPR and PBS. He's saying that technically they're running ads by asking for viewer support, even though they're publicly funded and that he should look into their content. Is there a way for us to try to protect NPR PBS?”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think that both of them are harmful, and I think Zuckerberg is looking at buying whatever influence he possibly can because he sees it works. It's not that complicated on this. Write big checks and you get influence with Trump.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We'll have to find ways to crank up the pressure. And I'm going to do that. You have people like EFF, for example, electronic frontier folks might step in, other kinds of kinds of groups, but ACLU, EFF, Ron White, and those are your three.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But if Zuckerberg Caves and Disney Caves and Sherry Redstone Caves because she wants to sell Paramount to Skydance so that she rolls in the CBS lawsuit and no one shows up in court and says actually these threats violate the First Amendment. Don't we just lose the First Amendment? Doesn't the pressure just work? How do you push back”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That visit by Zuckerberg to Mara Lago and what he did with the fact-checkers was a god-awful thing to do for the future of communications.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They are caving like crazy and nobody has caved more than Mark Zuckerberg. So Mark Zuckerberg goes to Marlago and he tells Trump what he wants to hear. There aren't going to be any fact checkers. Okay, Donald, just what you wanted. No fact checkers. He scores some points with Trump. My guess is you're going to have a lot of the other big players seeing how this is successful for Zuckerberg. They're going to go down tomorrow Lago as well, look for favors also. And in the process, what's going to happen is we're going to reconsolidate big communications and have even fewer small voices than we had before the internet came into being. We ought to be protecting both small voices and what Zuckerberg is now part of doing is just doing more to help the big voice. And in effect, pushed the little guys out of communications.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Coming from Castro. So I'm a journalist kid, and I think the founding fathers who said that a free press was more important than government. They got it right, and I believe that.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I've not since this appointment, but it's very predictable. They basically find something which they try to make sound relevant, but it is completely irrelevant to the big question. And that makes it less likely the public's going to pick up on the big question. And that's why whenever I have a chance to, I've had 1,13. And you can read about them. And it takes Hutzpah. And they're open to all and I don't give any speeches at all. I just show up and say for the next 90 minutes, you can say your piece, ask me any kind of question. I mean, it is to me my kind of vision of the First Amendment. My dad was a journalist and an author right next to me or one of his books, for example, on the Bay of Pigs with a picture of Fidel Castro next to my dad on the book and the caption is Peter Whyden knows more about it. It than we do”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's not getting a lot of attention in Congress, but I'm doing everything I can to light the place up around it because your view that a big chunk of what the Trump crowd and the far right want to do is act in the name of free speech. They make all these proclamations about how they're free speech, but basically what they're trying to do is everything possible to deny the voices that they don't agree with.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It is bizarre to me, and it's particularly bizarre because it's wrapped up in the language of free speech. And in particular, that language comes from the new FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, who is attacking CBS, NBC, ABC, radio stations now, about how they're using their spectrum and threatening to take their spectrum away. Is there anything attention to this? It feels like a sideshow, but to me, this is the most overt government speech regulation I've ever seen.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, but you really are going to have to hustle to get the right kind of parties and go through the process. But yes, it's doable.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm going to try to do Last question on TikTok, and I promise I'll move on to the FCC because I'm very curious for your opinion there as well. The clock is running, right? There's only 50, 60 more days tops. Do you think a deal can be made in time?”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Think we got pretty far down the road in terms of Elon running the government and what I'm going to try to do to stop him. We probably have more ways to go in terms of TikTok, but I think I've spelled out one I think ought to be done. At least it's consistent from day one.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, in the tech world, everyone's parlor game beyond does Elon run the government? Those are the two things everyone talks about at the party I go to at the parties I go to. So I'm just curious, it has to get done. The clock is running out.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I tell him I'm bustin' my chops to get them something resembling an American buyer who's been carefully vetted and protects their interests and all American interests.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We'll see. You know, a lot of people are understanding that algorithms are pretty complicated when you're talking about protecting people's education and healthcare and job, they get interested.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Not only do you need algorithm transparency, you got a guy who's authored to bill that moves in that direction called the Algorithmic Accountability Act, my legislation.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Hey, can I just make one point that I think I may have misstepped on? I am not for the ban. I am for finding a way to get this right with an American buyer.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The reason I'm just going to ask this again. The reason I'm focused on this is I see a lot of danger of algorithmic ownership, right? You see how Musk has managed to distort the conversation at X because he owns that algorithm. I don't know how changing the content moderation standards on Facebook and Instagram will play out, but my expectation is a lot of minority and queer creators are going to face a lot more harassment on those platforms because the rules have been changed. The algorithm will allow more things to happen. If the danger of TikTok is the algorithm is owned by somebody”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The reality is Trump, as he usually does, just governs by whim. He starts off by saying, you know, TikTok is bad, then he learns, heaven forbid, that there are a bunch of young people who like it. And suddenly he's trying all of these exotic ways to deal with it. I said from the very beginning that my first choice was to have an American buyer who could pass a rigorous betting to show that they were independent and would meet the criteria of the public interest standards. And I don't think Trump's interested much in that either. In fact, if you talk about it, you really think that at some point maybe he's just going to figure out a way to hotwire a deal where he sells TikTok in some way to musk directly. And if he does, that'd be about the most corrupt example I could find.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Musk could not have passed the Ron Wyden test because you would have to have a reputable American buyer who'd been thoroughly vetted. And I don't think Musk with all his China connections and all that could pass that test that I've described.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“A lot of young people today who would say, well, sure, but then Elon Musk is going to buy it, and we see what he did to X. And that is as much of a national security problem today as the Chinese government owning the algorithm.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, the issue was, and I'm on the intelligence committee, is the closeness to the Chinese government. And that was a national security issue.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't think it's legal, but here's what I think this debate is all about, okay? The reality is from day one, unlike Donald Trump, I had the same position. You know, Donald Trump was against it, now he's for it. I always said it would be a good thing to have an American company run it and have them tightly vetted. And that would, for example, have limited Steve Minuchin and others who talked about getting access to it. I'm still in favor of that as a policy issue. The question now is what the courts are going to say given the fact there's been an act of Congress. But I have not changed my preference once since the very beginning.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and there's some competition anybody can sue Elon right now he posts lives himself two hundred thirty protects Elon's competitors against Trump's FCC There are protections, but the bottom line is that when you have somebody as rich as Musk who literally bought a presidential campaign, you've got to use every tool you got and a lot of them are not 230.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Know, look, I've always felt, and I've said this on your show, the big guys, of which Elon is about the biggest, always have the biggest checking account to be able to buy what they want. I mean, Elon Musk just bought a presidential campaign. You know, he basically was the big giver. Section 230 is you and I have talked about is all about making sure there's a voice for the little guy, the Me Too, the Black Lives Matter, the people who probably couldn't get a message out without 230 involves. So I think that 230 continues to be an immensely valuable tool for the person who doesn't have a political action committee, doesn't have power, doesn't have a deep checkbook, and, you know, we're going to have a problem reigning in the Elon Musk no matter what, because they can buy this.”
2025-02-10 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Sen. Ron Wyden is here to stop Elon Musk · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT