Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) recently sat down for an interview with John Green, YouTuber and author of The Fault in Our Stars and Everything is Tuberculosis. Schiff and Green discussed a range of topics from threats to the rule of law to how we can fight to protect our democracy.
This is the latest in Schiff’s efforts to diversify his outreach with creators to ensure he is connecting with boarder audiences. John Green’s YouTube account has nearly 4 million subscribers.
Key Excerpts:
On the importance of Congress enforcing the power of the purse:
[…] The Constitution makes that line pretty clear, and it gives Congress the power of the purse. That’s our most vehement, strong, ironclad power. He’s got the military. He’s got authority to run the agencies, but he can’t do any of that unless we appropriate the money. But here’s the thing, that power, like every other in the Constitution, is only as good as our willingness to enforce it. The day we decide that, “Well, we’re going to let him ignore Congress’s appropriation of funds.” That is when we appropriate money and say we want it used thus and so, or we allow the president to take money we appropriated one thing and use it for another.
The day we either say that’s okay, or we say we’re not going to stand up to that, then we’ve given up our most important power. And right now, that is sadly, where we are. They are, in the administration, violating the law. It’s illegal to try to shut down agencies that Congress has established. It’s illegal to use money for purposes other than what Congress has appropriated for. It’s also unlawful not to spend the resources Congress has appropriated for things like fighting disease around the world and fighting disease here at home, but that’s what they’re doing.
On protecting our democracy:
[…] There’s no understating the seriousness of what we’re facing right now. But I also take the long view of this. We went through a bitterly divided time during Vietnam, which was not unaccompanied by violence in the streets and bombings. We have been through a Civil War, which is a cataclysm of an order magnitude far greater than anything we’re experiencing today. We’ve been through world wars; we’ve been through a Cold War. We’ve been through 100-year pandemic, and we will survive this too, but there’s lasting damage being done right now. It’s going to take us time to come back from this and rebuild. But I have every confidence that one day we’re going to look back on this. We’re going to ask ourselves, “How in the hell did that guy ever become president of the United States?” What on earth were they thinking? The only question is, how quickly we can get there, and how much damage we suffer along the way.
On the important work of USAID across the world:
[…] They’re doing development work. They’re fighting disease, they’re building sanitary water systems. I mean, they’re doing great things around the world, and they’re incredible diplomats. When someone is helping you get the food and the medicine and the care you need, you never forget them, and you never forget what their country did for you, and so this is among the most effective diplomacy we have. It’s an unmitigated good and to see it constantly disparaged as a waste and mocked is just so destructive. And having gotten to know a lot of these USAID personnel, the idea that they get an email halfway around the world saying, basically, “your services are no longer needed, come home,” or they work here at home, and they’ve been devoted to this. They’ve gotten to know people they’ve served around the world, and then had the rug pulled out from under them. It’s heartbreaking.
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