The Issue Is: From Long Beach to Washington, D.C.

This week on The Concern Is, a dialog with Congressman-Elect Robert Garcia.

The California Democrat, who spent the final eight years as Mayor of Lengthy Seashore, is on his strategy to the Home of Representatives, the place he was just lately elected by his friends as freshman class president.

Garcia joins Elex Michaelson to debate his expertise at freshman orientation, his use of social media to troll Republicans, immigration reform, crypto regulation, and his place as the primary openly-gay immigrant in Congress.

Subsequent, Michaelson travels to the Reagan Presidential Library for the annual Reagan Nationwide Protection Discussion board, an annual occasion that “brings collectively leaders from throughout the political spectrum and key stakeholders within the protection neighborhood… to debate and debate how the U.S. can lead the world in an period of more and more advanced challenges and alternatives.”

On the discussion board, Michaelson spoke with Congressmen Mike Garcia (R-CA), Ken Calvert (R-CA), and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA), former U.S. Protection Secretaries Mark Esper and Leon Panetta, FOX Information anchor Bret Baier, and extra.

THE ISSUE IS: BEING ELECTED FRESHMAN CLASS PRESIDENT AT CONGRESSIONAL ORIENTATION

GARCIA’S CENTRAL TAKE: “We’ve a fantastic class, there’s 34 Democrats, clearly an enormous, massive class of Democrats and Republicans, and I am honored to signify them. It is a fantastic group of individuals, academics, attorneys, mechanics, a illustration of the nation, and so I will be a consultant to the management. We’ve new management coming in, after all, Chief Hakeem Jeffries, for the Democrats. And so, it is an honor to be chosen, and I am simply going to work on daily basis to make sure that all of them get reelected…

“You realize, I am an immigrant child, I grew up with not quite a bit, and so to have the ability to develop into a U.S. citizen, to undergo this course of, get elected Mayor of my neighborhood after which get elected to Congress, is a large expertise, however one I believe that solely can occur right here on this nation…”

THE ISSUE IS: TROLLING REPUBLICANS VIA TWITTER

GARCIA’S CENTRAL TAKE: “I am homosexual and so I wish to have enjoyable, and I inform folks, like, you recognize, I do all my very own social media and I wish to have enjoyable and have a great time – it is a part of my persona. I believe it is also necessary to talk to a brand new era and people discuss, you recognize, and converse by means of social media, by means of Twitter, by means of different avenues, and so I do it myself, I plan to proceed doing it myself, and I plan to proceed to troll Marjorie Taylor Greene as absolute best… Whereas it is mild hearted and humorous, you recognize, I do take significantly that she desires to take rollback rights for homosexual folks and LGBTQ+ folks, in order that’s one thing that I take very significantly…”

THE ISSUE IS: IMMIGRATION REFORM

GARCIA’S CENTRAL TAKE: “Actually I help getting one thing performed on this lame duck session of Congress that may be excellent, however on the finish of the day, there’s obtained to be a broader dialog round immigration. There’s 10 to 11 million folks right here on this nation that haven’t any pathway to citizenship, and I believe we have got to a minimum of begin by discovering a pathway to those who there is a consensus round. You consider folks which are been in faculty, are Dreamers, of us which have served within the navy, that actually served this nation in uniform, that do not have a pathway to citizenship? I imply, these are I believe are areas that we are able to all come to settlement on and may give attention to first. Visitor employee applications, we’re listening to from corporations, a lot of whom help Republicans, which are saying we’d like extra staff inside visitor employee applications, whether or not it is in agriculture or whether or not it is in development. And so I believe these are areas that we should always attempt to discover settlement on and transfer ahead first…”

THE ISSUE IS: CRYPTO REGULATION AND SAM BANKMAN-FRIED

GARCIA’S CENTRAL TAKE: “Simply to be clear, I imply, I’ve by no means met [Sam Bankman-Fried], so I do not know him. He clearly donated to campaigns throughout the nation and people have been impartial expenditure campaigns, so that cash that he gave, whether or not it was to me or different candidates was by means of this darkish cash system that we have now on this nation the place any particular person individual can donate to any candidate. I imagine in public financing. I believe these legal guidelines ought to change. I’ve no management over what he or another individual out on this nation goes to spend cash on in these campaigns. I believe it is outrageous that one individual can spend a lot cash, and so I help reform. I do not know him, however I do assume the difficulty in entrance of us is critical. I haven’t got crypto. I do not know a lot about crypto, to be sincere, however I stay up for reviewing this situation in Congress…”

THE ISSUE IS: GARCIA’S LONG BEACH LEGACY

GARCIA’S CENTRAL TAKE: “I inform folks on a regular basis that Lengthy Seashore is a large metropolis. I believe folks do not understand that, from a inhabitants perspective, it is smaller than Atlanta, Georgia. It is obtained extra folks than Pittsburgh, Miami, New Orleans. In another state, this might be like the most important metropolis. Lengthy seashore is gigantic, significantly right here in southern California. So it has been an honor to serve, you recognize, as mayor. I believe after I look again, I believe the most important emergency we had was the pandemic. We misplaced 1,300 folks, the only largest emergency that we had as a metropolis was the pandemic, and so I am actually pleased with the neighborhood’s response round that. But additionally, you recognize, we have spent extra now on infrastructure and fixing streets than at any time within the final 50, 60 years, by means of measures we put in entrance of voters, we fastened faculties, we have modernized our local weather work, we have raised wages – in Lengthy Seashore, we really raised the minimal wage earlier than the state did… I am pleased with that work. I believe we have had a progressive file within the metropolis, however I additionally assume that we have all the time centered folks and tried to uplift folks’s proper. So I am pleased with the eight years…”

The Concern Is: with Elex Michaelson is California’s solely statewide political present. For showtimes and extra info, go to TheIssueIsShow.com.