CNN Newsroom: Interview With Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ)

Interview

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Look, I think we have to be worried. Number one, the most important thing we have, something that we learned when I was chairman of Intel Special Operations are sources. And number two, our allies. And when those are both put in jeopardy that makes us less secure and it makes our enemies more emboldened.

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Look, we don't know the extent of the damage, and first off, we actually have to figure out the extent of how much is actual verifiable information that we've collected, how much is it -- something has been repurposed by our foreign enemies, specifically Russia for their end goal. And let's be clear the reason this is coming out right now it's because its goal is to weaken our resolve, weaken our alliance, and help their end goal, which is to take all of Ukraine.

So we first have to really figure out how deep the hole is before we actually can figure out how to fill that hole, but let's be clear. It is very dangerous when we don't know who is handling our information, how it's being handled or why it has been mishandled when it comes to this situation.

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Look, I have visited Taiwan. I've spoken with the president in the past, have actually authored language in the defense budget to help Taiwan defend itself. I do think that it's more helpful to Taiwan if we give them better weapons, not for them to conduct a war, but for us to actually deter China.

China right now does not actually have the capability to fully take Taiwan in a traditional invasion situation. They're trying to build to that. Now we can actually arm Taiwan to the point where China will have to think twice about doing it, and maybe we can avoid a situation where, you know, China tries to invade Taiwan, but it is in our best interests, obviously, for Taiwan to be able to defend itself. It's in the interest of the world.

It's in the interest of Arizona, for example. We have the largest Taiwanese -- largest chipmaker in the world, that is TSMC, which the Taiwanese chip making plant that's moving here to Arizona. And if Taiwan is shut down, much of the world's commerce will also be shut down, so making sure that they could defend themselves and stand on their own with, of course, alliance help is going to be really, really important, and making sure China knows that it's even more important.

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Look, I do think it's (INAUDIBLE). This is a hidden tax on working class people. When you're just trying to take a vacation, and people have very few dollars nowadays to take vacations, to see what you thought was an affordable, you know, hotel now being more expensive is awful. Trying to get airline tickets and then having to get charged extra so your child sits next to you does not allow you to really plan a vacation.

Hoping to go see a Taylor Swift concert or anyone else's concert and then going to the final page and realizing that 26 percent more than you originally planned is not the way that consumers should be treated. So this bill all it really is asking for transparency so people know what they're getting, and that they could actually plan for it.

And I think at the end of the day, this is something that's very bipartisan whether it's Democrat or Republican. We want the consumer to have as much information as possible so they could actually make logical choices instead of trying to be essentially conned into paying these fees.

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And it doesn't really matter. Kyrsten Sinema is always going to end up in third place, and it's not because of the Republicans or because of Democrats, because no one in Arizona trust her. She basically violated the values of Arizona in siding with Wall Street, siding with pharma, and she's not going to get that back and no matter what she does and how often she does it, she won't get it back because she doesn't need to do -- she can't do the bare minimum.

She refuses to have a town hall to talk to her constituents. She hasn't met with constituents in four years. And until she actually tries to really repair that bond it doesn't matter how much her Wall Street buddies are going to give her she's going to end up in third place.

We're not worried. We will win this ratio. There's a two-way race or a three-way race. Senator Sinema just needs to figure out whether she wants to end up in third place or find another alternative career.

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Thank you. Happy Easter.

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