CNN Newsroom: Interview with Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ)
Interview
"I think, first to your point, and thanks for having me, yesterday was a win for reasonableness and common sense over extremism. Right? The extremists lost. But to your point, the challenge we have to get out of this cycle of insanity. We can't live 45 days to 45 days. We have to focus on real issues for the country. And enough of this squabbling and absurdity.
So, you know, my number one focus when we get back tomorrow is making sure that we can develop a process that gets us past this 45-day government shutdown. Looks at longer term solutions on our appropriations process and fights for issues that people care about and that they're focused on. And so that's going to be our number one focus when I get back.
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Well, the administration has made clear that we can get through these next 45 days. The challenges we're looking at weeks, not months, of where we have enough support for Ukraine, which we know is key to standing up to Putin and the dictatorial march. It's key to our making sure that we don't empower China or Russia or Iran. So it's critical to our allies. So much of this is essential for us and America's national security.
So, you know, Mr. McCarthy and the speaker's told us he's planning, is my understanding, planning to bring a longer term Ukraine package to the floor. We're going to hold him to that. And I think that's critically important.
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Well, I think first, we've seen as you just heard from your last guest, a civil war raging in Republican House caucus now since the beginning of this Congress with the 15 votes. Right? It's just been nonstop. So first, we've got to really leave it to them to work out their family problems. I've heard a long time from Jersey, I've heard a long time ago don't mess with people's families, so we'll leave it to them.
But I'll tell you this. If it's about policy matters and commonsense bipartisan solutions like we saw yesterday, where it was -- they lost 91 Republicans, every Democrat voted for that commonsense bill to keep the government open but one, right, those are the kind of commonsense, bipartisan solutions we should be working toward. Like we did on the debt ceiling which was a bipartisan deal.
And this is what you do in divided government, right? You're going to have to work together. It's what we did last Congress on the infrastructure package and supporting veterans and our families and making sure that we take care of folks.
So that to me, if you want to talk policy matters, we're always open for good faith discussions and I'll continue doing so on Ukraine and other matters this coming week. But again, I think they've got to work out their raging civil war in their own family.
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Well, I think what you've seen is just one mess after another. And the only way we've gotten past the mess is actually when we stood up to the extremists and worked together on a bipartisan manner. It's what the Problem Solvers Caucus, and there's 64 of us, 32 Democrats and 32 Republicans, it's what we focus on every week. Where can we agree, how do we get things done, we were very involved in the debt ceiling.
We were very involved yesterday making sure we got past a potential government shutdown so the, you know, our veterans, our seniors, our children, were not hurt and people didn't go to school without school lunch and take care of our kids. You know, that's how you do it in a bipartisan way. We put the country first. We're going to keep bringing that approach with whoever we're working with on the other side.
And so I'm hopeful they work things out on their side, but again, any bipartisan work like on this appropriations process over these next weeks so that we're not stuck in this 45-day cycle of absurdity, you know, I'm -- our table is open for any policy work.
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I haven't spoken to Dean yet but he's a very good friend of mine and he's a good man and a great leader from Minnesota. So I'll talk to him and get back to you. But of course I respect his wishes and his approach to problem solving because he's been somebody who's been part of the Problem Solvers Caucus and someone who also believes in bipartisan governing. So, you know, again, people like Dean and others who are about bipartisanship and working together, I'm always welcome to that.
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Well, I support President Biden and I think if you look at his record of accomplishment, it's second to none in terms of legislative accomplishment. Look at what we've gotten done in the last couple of years. Right? Getting past this debt ceiling, going back to the PACT Act for veterans and CHIPS bill to make sure that we stand up to China and make sure that we build more semiconductors in the United States. The bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Accomplishment after accomplishment. Electoral Reform Act. That's all been done in a bipartisan matter. And that's thanks to the president's leadership and obviously the work we've done in Congress together. Democrats and Republicans. So I think he's got a strong record to stand on.
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Thanks for having me. And remember one thing. These next
couple of weeks, it is all about common sense versus extremism. Common sense has to win. We got to make sure the extremists don't win and that common sense wins.
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Agree. Thanks. Thank you.
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