>> As Wisconsin and the nation geared toward
midterm elections, what are voters to make of what goes
on in Washington and how it affects them? Or are they
tuning out because of the daily crush of headlines?
There's the ongoing war in Iran, prices at the pump
and in the spring planting fields. There is the nearly
$1.8 billion anti weaponisation fund that the
president could give to people who stormed the
Capitol on January 6th. There is the significant
narrowing of the Voting Rights Act by conservatives
on the U.S. Supreme Court. And the list goes on and on.
We regularly like to touch base with our congressional
delegation for their news and views. Over the past
couple of weeks, we've invited Wisconsin
Republicans to share their viewpoints without success.
Tonight, we turn to fourth District Democratic
Congresswoman Gwen Moore. And thanks very much for
being here. >> Always great to be with
you, Fredricka. >> So of all the news that
is swirling, what stands out for you as you
represent your constituents? >> Well, the thing that is
obviously standing out to me is just the unending
crush, economic crush that people are facing.
Combination of the tariff tariffs, the war on Iran,
the erratic, mercurial functioning of this
president, him freezing funds for essential
services like daycare and childcare. These are things
that are disrupting everyday Wisconsinites
lives. The crisis with health care and the
doubling sometimes of people's health care
premiums, or the loss of their health care premiums.
You know, just the aggregation of all these
things is placing a huge economic crush on families.
And so that's the thing that sort of stands out to
me as the background for all of the very particular
things that are happening. >> As to the ruling related
to the Voting Rights Act, that a majority minority
district was an unconstitutional racial
gerrymander, what does that mean to minority
representation? >> It means an awful lot.
You know, the the 13th, 14th, 15th amendment, the
14th amendment of the Constitution in particular,
really guaranteed African Americans equality. And we
we have seen throughout history, this is not new
people. We have 'seen throughout history sort of
lost cause. You know, Democrats and Republicans
grieving over African Americans having access to
the ballot, access to power and their willingness to
sort of interfere with that power by any means
necessary. You know, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan
came as a result of African Americans being
enfranchised. And so this is absolutely no this is a
backlash for the power that African Americans have
achieved. And this could have an impact on a minimum
of 19 sort of voting, voting rights districts in
the country. >> Turning to the war in
Iran, the U.S. and Iran are reportedly negotiating. Are
members of Congress on both sides tiring of this
ongoing war and wanting a say?
>> Well, I'll tell you, we have been putting up war
powers resolutions, repeatedly privileged
resolutions, which, by the way, the Republicans did
not honor. Yesterday we had yet another war Powers
resolution ripen, and they didn't put it before us
because they in the House did not have the votes to
defeat it. We've seen more and more and more
Republicans join us in putting forth this War
Powers Resolution. To this day, we don't have a
concrete reason that we went in there.
>> On another matter in your mind, should Congress
have a say over the nearly $1.8 billion fund that
resulted out of a settlement President Trump
made with the IRS that would pay people the
administration believes were unfairly prosecuted.
>> It's all very ludicrous. I bet Frederica you can't
even believe that you're asking this question. This
$1.8 billion slush fund for his cronies and his buddy
and, you know, also a part of that other part of that
agreement is that Donald Trump and his sons should
never, ever, ever be audited again. That is
absolutely the pinnacle of corruption. But as a member
of the Ways and Means Committee, we did we did
offer in our markup yesterday, which was on
corruption of TANF, for example, corruption. We did
offer amendments to try to get rid of this $1.8
billion fund. >> Are your voters
overwhelmed by the crush of everything that happens out
of Washington on a daily basis?
>> You want to know something that I'll say?
The whole political strategy of the Trump
administration has been to flood the zone, to just
keep us running like a rat on a treadmill so that we
won't be able to respond to their chaotic, mercurial
governance strategy. We are hoping to get back into
power to really resolve some major threats to our
community of interest. That is the ability for people
to vote, the ability of people to be able to go to
a doctor, the ability of people to be able to afford,
you know, both the bacon and the eggs and, and to be
able to live a productive life, to be able to put gas
in their cars so they can get to work. This is this
is a this is the American dream just to have normalcy.
And so this is what we're offering voters in the
future. And that is we're keeping our eye on the
prize. prize.