- Hi everyone, Steve Adubato, and we are honored to kick off the program with the Honorable United States Congresswoman, Bonnie Watson Coleman, who represents the 12th Congressional District in New Jersey.

Congresswoman, thanks so much for being with us again.

- Oh, Steve, it's always good to be with you, and it's good to see you.

- Absolutely.

So the graphic comes up, Democracy in Danger.

There's a 2024 election that all of us know about.

Question, am I engaging, are we engaging in hyperbole, A and B?

If we are in danger, describe it.

- So let me just tell you that I had a member of my church come up and sit next to me one day and say, "May I ask you a question?"

I said, "Sure".

She said, "Should I be afraid?"

And I just said, "Yes, yes."

Our democracy is hanging in the balance here, depending upon what we do in the upcoming election.

When we hear that a potential candidate and possible president of the United States of America talks about coalescing power, all the power under their office, talks about using the independent Department of Justice to get retribution for things that he didn't like, or cases that were against him for saying that, "Yeah, I do wanna be a dictator if only for a day, so that I can build a wall and drill, drill, drill."

And he's talking about things that aren't helpful to our country and don't give us the economic prosperity and the safety and security that we need.

And so, I believe him when he says that he would try to do all of these things.

I believe him when he talks about the kind of people that he would bring into his cabinet, even if he had to do it in an acting capacity because he couldn't get something through the Senate.

I believe that there would be the Stephen Millers of the world that don't care about our democracy, don't care about the diversity of this country, do not care about everyday working families.

And I think that people don't realize that when we talk about democracy is threatened.

What does that mean when it comes to your kitchen table?

So you talk about, you know, Donald Trump and Trumpism, and even what's happening in my house in Congress from the Republican side.

And they're talking about taking away safety net things for changing them in such a way they're not no longer helpful.

- Such as?

- SNAP, social security.

- Otherwise known as food stamps, right.

- Yeah, yeah.

Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, prescription drugs, the cost for those, negotiating directly with other companies to ensure that we lower the cost of healthcare and prescriptions.

Just, it's a litany of issues, changing the way our schools teach our children.

Eliminating this whole notion of diversity and equity and inclusion on every level, clearly pointing to there ought to be a one America, and that one America ought to be white and principally ruled by white males.

- But, Congresswoman, while you make the case and people can decide for themselves how they feel about it, here's the thing that I feel we need to put on the table.

Do you believe that part of the reason that our representative democracy is in danger is because also the Democrats are about to potentially put, likely put up a candidate in the President Joe Biden, who will be 86 on the backend of his second term, and a disproportionately high number of younger people, younger African-American citizens are not drawn to the President.

And we don't engage in political prognostication or polls, but I will say this is, the question has to be asked, what are the Democrats doing to contribute to strengthening our representative democracy?

If Donald Trump is ahead in so many polls against the sitting United States President, who many question his cognitive abilities, not just now, but in a potential second term.

I know it's a loaded question Congresswoman, but please take it on.

- Well, first of all, Donald Trump is only two or three years younger than Joe Biden.

Number two, Joe Biden said he wouldn't be running if Donald Trump wasn't running.

So we know he's got enough good sense about him to offer his candidacy one more time to protect our democracy.

Number three is, irrespective of Joe Biden's age, look at the things that he's accomplished.

Look at what he's done getting us through the pandemic.

Look at what he's done in reducing access to the high cost of insulin.

Look at what he's done with chips and PAC, and the infrastructure bills that we couldn't get through under younger Republican and Democratic presidents.

Look what he did with the Recession Reduction Act.

- The Act.

- Every one of those things he did, Steve, make life better and more protective for everyday working families, so, he may.

- Will congress want a second term?

I'm sorry for interrupt, a second term?

Look, here's the question.

You make the case about specific accomplishments.

They speak for themselves, but what do you say to millions of Americans, in fact, more independents, a majority of Democrats and, obviously, the massive, the overwhelming number of Republicans question the President's cognitive abilities in a second term, not just now, but moving forward.

So talk to those.

- Well, how do you project that?

What has he done in his administration that suggests to anybody who's really looking at his accomplishments and what they mean to you in sheltering you, and feeding you, and protecting you, and educating you, that suggests that this man has any impairment of his cognitive abilities?

- Well, why do you think people think that?

- And he may stumble over words because he has a speech impediment, but he doesn't stumble over concepts.

He doesn't stumble over what he thinks is the righteous things to do for this nation.

And listen, nobody's perfect, but this man has accomplished more in the three and a half years of his administration than back there when FDR accomplished his New World and, - The New Deal, right.

- And, yeah.

And Lyndon Johnson did all the things that he did- - The Great Society.

- Yes, absolutely.

- Right.

- So let us go on his record, and let us not assume that God's gonna call him home until his work is finished.

And you know what?

I got a colleague who just buried his father.

He was 102 years old, and you know what he said to me?

He said, "Bonnie, he was 102 years old in age, but he was at all of his faculties.

He knew what he needed to know.

He was in the present."

And so is Joe Biden.

Here's our challenge.

Democrats gotta figure out how to explain all of the things that we've done that make life better, protect your interests and your rights, make sure your children get educated.

Take that burdensome student debt off of your back.

We've gotta communicate how this presidency has materialized a better world for you, and Democrats have a problem with that.

'Cause you know what?

We're always trying to explain stuff, while Republicans throw out these 32nd soundbites.

They don't have to have any relationship to reality.

Not one, but they all say it and they say it over and over and over again, and people get impressed by it.

But I'm not concerned about what the polls are saying right now.

- Okay, okay, okay.

I'm sorry to interrupt.

I just wanted, there's another topic, an important topic I wanna get to.

- Another topic?

- We're taping this program.

Well, yeah, because you have been outspoken on so many things and you've been a leader in so many areas.

But help folks understand, as of the time we're taping this program, this will be seen later.

We don't try to report what's going on in the war between Israel and Hamas right now.

However, the question of a ceasefire as we speak right now, and the date will come up on the screen.

You have been in favor of the ceasefire, what is your position and why do many of your colleagues see it differently?

- Well, I think that everybody wants to see peace as the outcome.

I think that most people wanna see a secure and independent Israel, but a secure and independent Palestinian nation as well.

I don't believe that you can continue to get there through war.

I believe that you need to engage in diplomacy, and you need to have the carrot and the stick.

Now, you asked me where the carrot and the stick is.

I don't know, I'm not the diplomat.

But I know that there's gotta be a better way than devastating a whole infrastructure, displacing a half of a population, killing tens of thousands of people, innocent children, and elderly, and other innocent folks.

I don't know the whole answer to this, but I know that if we are seeking peace, then we have to approach it in a strategic and peaceful manner.

And this continuum bombardment is not getting there.

- Lemme follow up on that.

The former ambassador, Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, who's from New Jersey, when asked this question about a ceasefire, he said, "I wanna be clear, a ceasefire, if there is a ceasefire," and again, this, we may date ourselves on this, "a ceasefire equals Hamas wins."

What do you say to that?

- I don't understand that because I believe that Hamas will suffer if it doesn't get access to supplies that it needs.

Hamas is not stronger than Israel.

Hamas is not stronger than the world condemnation of it.

Hamas, at the end of the day, can be neutralized if we provide the kind of diplomacy and support to the innocent people in Palestine who are being held hostage by Hamas as well.

- Do you have any, is it difficult at all for you, Congresswoman, to call Hamas a terrorist organization?

- Oh, absolutely not.

Hamas is a terrorist organization, and what it did on October 7th in Israel was unthinkable.

It just challenged every sensibility that one has in terms of decency.

It was disgusting.

It was horrific, and it was something that never should have happened.

And had Israel been paying better attention, perhaps, it wouldn't have happened on that scale.

- Last question.

- Netanyahu was so busy.

But let me just say this.

- Go ahead.

I'm sorry.

- Netanyahu was so busy trying to bring the judiciary up under him, kind of Trumpism if I might say, that they did not give the prospects of a Hamas uprising the kind of attention that it needed.

- Last question, and every time we have the congresswoman, and we, there's so much to cover, but this is an important question about the US Senate race, New Jersey.

Senator Menendez, his situation speaks for itself.

The criminal process, the judicial process will play out.

You have chosen not to support First Lady Tammy Murphy for the Senate seat as we speak right now.

And you've said, "You're likely not to endorse anyone."

Why or why not?

- Well, let me tell you, I have tremendous respect for Tammy.

I think she's bright and would be a good senator.

It's not that I am not endorsing her.

I'm not endorsing anyone.

I think that we've got, at least, three good candidates in the mix.

Andy Kim, Larry Hamm, and of course, Tammy.

We also may have a fourth one who announces in January, but it's hers to announce, and I think that this is a family dispute that they need to work out.

And I just need to stand there on the sidelines, wait for the candidate to be determined because every one of them is brilliant and ready.

And so, whoever emerges as the candidate, has my 100% support.

So this is not about not endorsing Tammy who I absolutely adore.

This is about my thinking that my responsibility is to remain neutral and let everyone get their message out.

- As the Congresswoman mentions, "It's a family fight," she means the Democrats, not any of that.

- Oh, yeah.

- I know, I understand, Congresswoman.

The Honorable Congresswoman, Bonnie Watson Coleman from the 12th Congressional District.

Congresswoman, you honor us every time you join us.

Thank you so much.

- Good to see you.

Thank you for having me.

- Absolutely.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back.

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