State of the Union: Interview With Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA)

Interview

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Nice being with you, Jake.

No, cluster bombs should never be used. That's crossing a line. Once you see what takes place -- we know what takes place, in terms of cluster bombs being very dangerous to civilians. They don't always immediately explode. Children can step on them. That's a line we should not cross.

I think the president's been doing a good job managing this war, this Putin aggressive war against Ukraine, but I think that this should not happen. He had to ask for a waiver under the Foreign Assistance Act just to do it, because we have been preventing the use of cluster bombs since, I believe, 2010.

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What I think is that we are -- would risk losing our moral leadership, because, when you look at the fact that over 120 countries have signed the convention on cluster munitions, saying they should never be used, they should never be used.

And, in fact, many of us have urged the administration to sign onto this convention. And so I'm hoping that the administration would reconsider this, because these are very dangerous bombs, they're dangerous weapons, and this is a line that I don't believe we should cross.

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I don't believe the administration deserves any blame for this.

We have to remember that Donald Trump made this agreement with the Taliban. Secondly, the Trump administration literally gutted our State Department and our diplomatic corps. I believe that the State Department and those who were involved in this end of the Afghanistan war, which should have happened before then, I believe, did the best they could.

But, having said that, it wasn't as smooth as we would have liked to have seen it. And, in fact, we still have to fund our State Department and our diplomats, just like we're funding the Defense Department. I believe that, had we stayed in Afghanistan, we'd be there another 20 years. There was no military solution.

That's why I voted against that overly broad authorization in 2001, which was a 60-word authorization that set the stage for forever wars.

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This is a climate emergency. We see wildfires. We see floods, the hottest days ever in history recently. And this administration, I think, has done phenomenally well in terms of investments and releasing our investments, business investments, private sector investments, to begin to rely on more clean energy -- a clean energy economy, making sure that we get away from using fossil fuels and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, also making sure that our water and air is clean by the investments in the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS Act.

And so I think that it's important to recognize that we have done everything, the Biden administration has done everything it can, given the political dynamics of the House and the Senate, that we can do. But we have to do a heck of a lot more. We have got to address environmental justice and injustice in communities of color and in low-income and poor communities.

I'm working with Congressman Raul Grijalva on an environmental justice bill. But I believe that this administration understands that there are injustices in our own country and have made investments into communities of color to clean up the pollution that we have to deal with each and every day.

The health impacts are horrendous. And so we need to do more. But I think that this administration has done a very good job in making investments in our climate emergency.

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The cost of living, of course, in California is extremely high.

The affordability crisis is high. We have record job growth, but yet job growth and wages have not kept up with the cost of living. And what I am talking about with voters and with people throughout the state -- first of all, in the Golden State of California, we have at least 20 million people who are living one paycheck away from poverty.

And so we have got to make sure that reduce the cost of housing. We have a huge unsheltered population. We have to make sure that we provide for childcare, for women, especially, who want to get back into the work force. And we have to make sure that we fight for a living wage for everyone here in California, because people cannot afford to continue to live here because the cost of living is so high.

And so the president, I believe, has done a remarkable job in moving forward this economy and creating more good-paying union jobs. But we have a heck of a lot more to do, especially for states which the cost of living is extremely high and the wages have not kept up with what it costs to live in a wonderful state such as California.

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I have said over and over and over again that I, first of all, am most concerned about Senator Feinstein's health. She's back at work, and she's doing her job.

I am running for the United States Senate. We're building our organizations. We -- organization. We were in the Central Valley last week, in Los Angeles and San Diego. And let me tell you, we have been listening, I have been listening to the challenges that people here in California have of inequality, the cost of living, the cost of housing.

That's what's important to me, that people understand that I see them, I hear them, and I'm going to fight for them so that they can have the type of life that Californians all deserve, and that is making sure that they're able to live the California and American dream.

That's what I'm doing, listening and explaining to people why I am running and making sure they understand that my experiences, my abilities to negotiate, appropriate and legislate, which have been proven, will be very useful for Californians when I'm elected into the Senate. And so I'm excited about this campaign that I'm running in.

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Look, first of all, I respect my congressman, my friend, Congressman Ro Khanna.

I'm speaking for myself when I say that I hope that Senator Feinstein continues to improve. She is back in Washington, D.C., and she is doing her job. And what I am doing is talking to voters and putting forth my record, my experience, my lived experiences, and connecting with people, so that people understand that I'm going to be fighting continuously for them, for a better life for everyone.

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Thank you.

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