The following is a transcript of an interview with Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired November 10, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re joined now by Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna. He’s in California this morning. Hello to you. It’s been a tough week for Democrats. I don’t need to tell you this, but the congressman, I mean, just to level with the American people, the Democrats and the Harris campaign told them that the fate of democracy itself was in question. game. Was this a cynical political tactic or, if this is reality, what is the current plan?
REPRESENTATIVE. RO KHANNA: Well, Margaret, I think what was at stake was the degradation of American democracy, the crudeness of political discourse, the idea that there are undocumented people, 12 million, who could be subject to a violation of their rights. Climate-related problems and the reversal of this situation. I never said there wouldn’t be elections in the future, and I was never one of those people who said there wouldn’t be 2026 or 2028 in one or two years, Donald Trump would be lame. duck. But I think we need to make sure we stand up for the rights of the citizens in this country and look to the future and see what we can do to win back the House and the White House.
MARGARET BRENNAN: When we look at the CBS polls, when you compare Harris in 2024 to Biden in 2020, you clearly see that the Democratic coalition has lost the support of Latino voters, young voters and women. Republicans also made gains among men of color. Why do you think there is this divide?
REPRESENTATIVE. RO KHANNA: We did not have a sufficiently convincing economic vision. The Democratic Party should have a simple mission: to address the economic hardships and struggles of many Americans, not just working-class Americans, a large portion of Americans who feel like the American dream has gone for them. families and their children, and you have new voices in Congress, people like Pat Ryan, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Chris Deluzio, who are saying: look, we need to have a vision on building new factories, on raising the wage minimum, on child care, and point out that our party has a better economic history. I think it could unify our party, moderates and progressives. And that transcends race and will help us with Latino voters, black voters, white working-class voters, and we have a better view than Donald Trump on that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You know, it’s interesting on this Monday morning to hear so many Democrats say that they think the economic message should have been at the forefront, but that they felt limited in some way. ‘another by this focus on identity. policy. New York’s Tom Suozzi addressed this issue when talking about Republicans’ ability to weaponize anarchy on college campuses, defunding the police, gender issues and women’s sports. Do you think that this movement, you know, of political “wokeness” has been incredibly damaging to the left, because a lot of it came from the progressive wing of which you are a member.
REPRESENTATIVE. RO KHANNA: Well, I’ve always said we need to focus on economic issues, but I don’t think we should run away from standing up for trans rights, standing up for equal rights for people , teaching American history responsibly. . You can be true to your values with two things, Margaret. First, if someone disagrees with you, we should respect that disagreement, not cancel or shame them. Don’t back down from your beliefs, but have a reasonable conversation. I did this with Megyn Kelly on a podcast about trans rights. I stuck to my position, but we had a reasonable conversation. The second thing is that if we focus on the economic hardship that people are facing, I have $12 trillion in my district in Silicon Valley, while cities like Johnstown have been gutted. wealth. Galesburg, Illinois, was gutted. We can build new factories. We can build a new industry. We can create new economic opportunities. We have a vision of how to do this. Biden – President Biden has started. I think we can convince people, even if they don’t agree with us on a particular social issue.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Let me ask you specifically about your district. Since you just mentioned it, Silicon Valley was considered a blue town, but particularly in this election, you saw money going to Donald Trump. You’ve seen some really big tech names, including Elon Musk. And JD Vance, the vice presidential candidate. He really reached out to this tech community as part of this campaign. What does Silicon Valley think it can get from the Trump administration? Is there no capital gains tax? Doesn’t it regulate cryptography? What do people in your neighborhood think they will get from Donald Trump?
REPRESENTATIVE. RO KHANNA: Well, first of all, Margaret, 70% of Silicon Valley still supported Vice President Harris and the Democrats…
MARGARET BRENNAN: – Yes
REPRESENTATIVE. KHANNA: But you’re right, we’ve had a slippage and probably now 20 to 30 percent support Donald Trump. They have different reasons for doing so. Some of them want more freedom of expression. Some of them want deregulation. Some of them want tax cuts. Some of them want AI not to be regulated. Some of them were concerned about cryptography. But I think what Democrats need to remind people, and I reminded Elon, is that Tesla received funding from President Obama. SpaceX started because Ash Carter, under President Obama, helped Elon get this facility. Democrats are the party that invested in science and technology to help build Silicon Valley, and we can be the party that helps AI robotics, build new factories, build new industry in different parts of the country . When we discuss policy, we have a better vision of how to keep Americans thriving in a modern economy. And if we focus on that, I believe we will win back the majority and we will win back the majority in 2028.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Former Speaker Pelosi told the New York Times that there were messaging errors, yes, but she also said that there should have been an open primary system here, and that the decision of the President Biden to endorse Vice President Harris immediately made that impossible. Do you agree with her?
REPRESENTATIVE. RO KHANNA: Well, look, I have a lot of respect for Speaker Pelosi, but I kind of laughed when people said that about President Biden, because the day he came out, we had the Democrats with the most exaggerated superlatives. comparing him to George Washington, saying he had done the most honorable thing. So now going back and criticizing him seems a bit contradictory. I think it was a winnable campaign. Even when he came out, Vice President Harris had a five-point lead in some polls. Anyone who says today that this campaign is unwinnable didn’t say it in August. The reason we didn’t win, ultimately, was we didn’t listen enough to the people on the ground, people like Chris Deluzio, Pat Ryan, who were saying, talk about the economy, talk about people’s economic struggles. Have – convince people that you have the best policies and the best vision. The reason I’m hopeful for the future is because we have the substance. In fact, you can’t build new factories just with tariffs and tax cuts. You need federal funding. We really invest in learning. And I think in the long run, the American people will see the truth of the political ideas.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You were a Joe Biden surrogate. You were Kamala Harris’ surrogate mother then, and on this show you championed both. Very often, you have created space on the issue of Gaza. You said, when you went to college campuses, when you talked to progressives, when you talked to voters of color, not just Arabs and Muslims. You heard there was a problem here. Do you think the numbers you saw, particularly in Michigan, supported your view, or was there just a larger force at work?
REPRESENTATIVE. RO KHANNA: I think she certainly would have won Michigan if more consideration was given to the failures of the Gaza policy. That was not my point of view. This was the view of many people I heard in the field. I also think that beyond Michigan, this was really a concern for a lot of young people and progressives. Now, I hope President Trump got some of the votes from the Muslim and Arab community. I had just participated in a bipartisan CODEL in Saudi Arabia. They said if the president wanted a deal with Saudi Arabia, Palestinian statehood and a two-state solution must be at the forefront. And I hope that we can work in this direction after the war.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Ro Khanna, Congresswoman, thank you very much for your time today. We’ll be back right away.
