Washington D.C. — U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined CBS 8 San Diego’s Neda Iranpour for a wide-ranging conversation on delivering for San Diego and California, the recent dismantling of agencies by the Trump administration, and working with Republican colleagues.
Watch the full interview here.
Key Excerpts:
On prioritizing the needs of San Diego:
[…] I want to prioritize, as I have in the House, making sure that we address the Tijuana River crisis, which I think is one of the foremost ecological disasters in the country. Similarly, the environmental catastrophe that is the Salton Sea. I want to make sure that our Amtrak line doesn’t fall into the ocean. I have a lot of priorities that I want to help address for San Diegans, and I look forward to working together to do it.
On working with colleagues across the aisle to deliver for the state and country:
[…] My strategy is to try to find common ground where I can work with my Republican colleagues to bring down the cost of living, to build more housing, make sure that it’s affordable housing, expand access to healthcare, to child care. But it is also evident from this first month of the new administration, I have a lot of work to do to try to push back against the scuttling of full departments in violation of law, the granting of access to sensitive files, to Elon Musk and his confederates, to protect the private data of the American people.
On Democrats’ messaging to focus on improving the economy:
[…] I think we have to be laser focused on economic issues that really affect average families and make that center to our positive agenda, and that means addressing the question I think most Americans have, which is if you’re working hard in America, can you still earn a good living? And how do we make sure that continues to be the case? So, that needs to be our focus.
We need to be constantly delivering for people and showing how our policies will help them pay the bills, access good quality healthcare and child care, and find housing that’s affordable. That needs to really be the center of our agenda. We need to be pointing out how the other side, what they’re advocating tax cuts for very wealthy families and large corporations. That’s not the right answer.
On Trump and Elon Musk’s dismantling of government agencies:
[…] The actions are deeply destructive. The freeze they attempted to put in all federal funding as a part of this, it’s meant that healthcare centers don’t know if they can keep their doors open, and child care centers don’t know if they can keep their doors open. It means seniors don’t know whether their Medicaid is going to be cut. All these things are on the chopping block. Congress has an important role as a check and balance to make sure that the worst doesn’t happen to the American people. They’re trying to essentially do an end run, and they need to be stopped, because it would be enormously damaging to the public and average families.
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