TRANSCRIPT:
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Ian Donnis: U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner faces a very different election landscape than when he won his congressional seat in 2022. Although Republicans had high hopes, Magaziner beat GOP candidate Allan Fung two years ago by just under four percentage points. This time around, Magaziner faces token opposition, but it’s unclear if Democrats will be able to regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives. The Senate may be up for grabs, and polls show a close presidential race between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump. Magaziner describes Trump and the election deniers who support him as a threat to democracy. So how should Democrats respond if Trump wins in November and their fears come to fruition? What does Harris need to do to overcome voters’ concerns about inflation and other issues? And how does Magaziner see the outlook for strengthening democracy in the U.S. and abroad? This week on Political Roundtable, I’m going in depth with the congressman from Rhode Island’s 2nd District, Seth Magaziner. Welcome back to The Public’s Radio.
Seth Magaziner: Yeah, thanks for having me back. It’s great to be here.
Donnis: You and your wife, Julia, welcomed a daughter earlier this year, Lucy. Congratulations.
Magaziner: Thank you.
Donnis: She joins your son, Max. I’m sure it’s not lost on you as a father that the world is a very stormy place these days. There are the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. China’s a rising power. Right wing political parties are gaining strength in Europe. That’s not even mentioning climate change. How are you feeling about the world that your children will inherit?
Magaziner: More determined than ever to make it a better place. You’re right. We’re facing a lot of challenges. It is not lost on me that my four-month-old daughter, Lucy, is born with fewer rights than my mother had for most of her life; that we face the challenges of climate change, which are very severe here in Rhode Island already; that across the world and here at home there is a rise of far-right parties and groups that often seek to use violence to achieve their quest for power. But it is also not lost on me that as a society and as a country, we have faced difficult challenges in the past, and we’ve overcome them because we’ve rolled up our sleeves as people who believe in freedom and democracy and usually – but not always – found a way to do the right thing. And so this is our generation’s test to build a better world for our children than the one that we inherited, and I’m determined to do my part.
Donnis: Polls show a close presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. If Trump is as bad as you and other Democrats say, why does he command enough support for this to be a competitive race?
Magaziner: Well, I think that Donald Trump is very good at distracting people from the real issues. He says outrageous things to get attention for himself and draws his opponents off message. I’m glad that Kamala Harris seems to be different. You know, when Donald Trump says something outrageous or terrible, she doesn’t get lost in trying to call attention to whatever crazy thing Trump is saying. She stays focused on the issues. She’s talking about price gouging. She’s talking about protecting freedoms like abortion rights and the freedom to marry who you love. She’s talking about protecting social security. She’s talking about protecting democracy. She is not letting herself get drawn off message. That’s a good thing. But since you brought up how close the presidential election is, I do have a message that I want to give to anyone who’s listening, who, like me, wants Kamala Harris to win and not Donald Trump, which is that it’s time to get to work, everyone. I am concerned that we are not yet seeing the level of engagement from Harris supporters that we saw for President Biden’s campaign four years ago. Yes, there is a surge of enthusiasm over the last month since President Biden stepped aside, but it’s still not where it needs to be.
Donnis: Let me stop you there, because we’ve got a lot of ground to cover. Critics say there will be fewer guardrails if Trump is able to regain the White House. If your worst fears about the threat to democracy are realized under that scenario, how do you believe that you and other congressional Democrats should respond?
Magaziner: Well, we have an extreme Supreme Court that has paved the way for Donald Trump to have dictatorial-type powers. They have wrongly, in my view, said that a president of the United States cannot be prosecuted for crimes committed while in office. With the disastrous Chevron decision, they have opened the door to unraveling a whole lot of protections for the environment and for workers. And so there is no question that with the planning that has gone into the Project 2025 program, and the Supreme Court paving the way for a president to have expanded powers, they are trying to give Donald Trump the ability to have sweeping powers to take away people’s freedoms and destroy lives. What we can do about it is a couple of things. One, as a Congress, we have the ability to pass legislation to essentially undo Chevron and to put these necessary labor protections and environmental protections into law, to codify them so that no court can overrule them. But ultimately, we have to have Democrats be successful in this election at all levels for any of that to be possible. And if I could just real quick finish my prior thought, my message to everyone is, now’s the time to get up off the couch and get involved. Volunteer, knock [on] doors. I’m going to be organizing phone banks to get Rhode Islanders engaged in the Harris campaign. We cannot be complacent.
Donnis: Some might say that the closeness of the presidential race is a problem of the Democrats’ own making because Democrats initially downplayed the threat of inflation. That is a major issue for a lot of voters. Were Democrats too slow to respond to that?
Magaziner: Well, all that I know is that we have a candidate for president right now in Kamala Harris, who has made combating inflation central to her agenda. She came out with a economic plan that includes cracking down on price gouging at the big food companies in the grocery stores, expanding drug price negotiation to lower the cost of healthcare – these are things that were part of her campaign – expanding the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit. So we have a candidate for president now in Kamala Harris who has a real plan to deal with inflation. And I’ll just note the contrast here. You know, Kamala Harris grew up middle class. She worked at McDonald’s. When she is making policy, tax policy and spending policy, she will be thinking of what will help middle-class families. Donald Trump only ever thinks about what’s good for Donald Trump and his billionaire friends at Mar-a-Lago.
Donnis: Let’s switch gears and talk about some other issues. How do you respond to critics who believe that the White House and congressional Democrats have not done enough to restrain Israel, and that you bear responsibility for the awful amount of carnage of civilians in Gaza?
Magaziner: Well, what’s happening in Gaza and across the Middle East is an absolute tragedy. What happened on Oct. 7, when over 1200 Israelis were slaughtered and hundreds more kidnapped, was the worst crime inflicted on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. What has happened in Gaza since then, with the disproportionate Israeli government response, has also been a humanitarian catastrophe. Here’s the crux of the issue. The leaders on both sides don’t want to stop fighting. You know, [Yahya] Sinwar, the leader of Hamas, wants to keep fighting, and he is prepared to go down in a blaze of glory in the way he sees it, killing as many Israelis and Jews as possible along the way. Netanyahu, for his own selfish political and personal reasons, does not want to stop fighting, and that creates a very difficult dynamic. What I heard from Vice President Harris at the convention when she spoke was a real, genuine outrage at what is going on, a real, genuine desire to push a cease-fire through any means possible. I have not heard that kind of language from Donald Trump, so I trust Kamala Harris to deliver on a lasting cease-fire more than I trust Donald Trump. But I will just flag, it is difficult to do that when the leaders of neither side have indicated that they want to stop fighting.
Donnis: We see how intense rainfalls now strike Rhode Island, causing more flooding in flood prone areas like Cranston and Johnston. What is the role of the federal government in helping to mediate that issue?
Magaziner: Two things. First of all, funding. And along with the rest of our delegation – Sen. Reed, Sen. Whitehouse, Congressman Amo and myself – we actually just announced more than $25 million of funding specifically for Cranston and Johnston to address flood mitigation. We’re also working hard to secure funding for other communities, as well. I’ve put in earmark requests for a number of communities specifically for climate resiliency and flood mitigation because you’re right. Look, the Narragansett Bay has risen six inches in the last 30 years. Businesses are being threatened. I was just down at the Charlestown Breachway, where a lot of businesses at Ninigret Pond are really struggling because of the erosion that’s occurred there. The other thing that we need to do is continue the transition and accelerate the transition to affordable clean energy. One of the things that the Republicans in Washington are threatening if they take full control is to roll back the Inflation Reduction Act passed under President Biden and congressional Democrats. That was the largest investment in climate and clean energy in the history of the world. It’s already having an impact, including here in Rhode Island, where it’s helping build out offshore wind and move Rhode Island to affordable clean energy. The Republicans are trying to stop it, and we cannot let that happen.
Donnis: As a former state general treasurer, do you think the General Assembly made the right decision this year by directing more money toward the state employees and pensioners who were affected by the pension overhaul spearheaded by Gina Raimondo in 2011?
Magaziner: Yeah, I do. And this is something I, as you note, I know quite a bit about from running the state pension system as treasurer for eight years. When I took office in 2015 the pension system was still not in good shape financially, and we made huge progress in the eight years that I was there, in part because of some investment decisions that we made, like getting out of high-fee hedge funds; also because the markets performed well. And so today, the pension system is in a much healthier place financially than it was before. And so I think it’s appropriate at this time – and the General Assembly and the new treasurer agree – that we do something to help out these retirees who are struggling with high inflation like everybody else, but have not had an increase to their benefit in a decade, or in some cases, more.
Donnis: Should those who were affected by the overhaul in 2011 be made whole for those changes?
Magaziner: Well, look, I trust treasurer Diossa and the General Assembly to find the right balance between helping retirees keep up with inflation and making sure that the progress that we made in getting the system healthier financially continues. You’ve got to find that right balance, right? We want to help people. They should help people, but they also have to be mindful of not having the pension system go back to where it was pre-2015 when there were real financial challenges and people were at risk of losing their pensions.
Donnis: You’ve been a member of Congress for a little more than a year and a half. Could you see yourself ever running for governor of Rhode Island?
Magaziner: I am 100% focused on doing as good a job as I can in Congress.
Donnis: Are you going to rule out ever running for governor?
Magaziner: Well, it’s certainly not something I’m thinking about right now, or any other office for that matter, besides the one that I’m in. The people of the 2nd District have trusted me to represent them in Congress. I take that seriously, and I want to make a mark there. You know, I ran for Congress because I want to help working people. I want to help lower costs, protect social security, protect abortion rights, and I want to bring back funding for Rhode Island, and have some real accomplishments I can point to. That is my whole professional focus right now.
Donnis: We’ve got to leave it there. The congressman from Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District, Seth Magaziner, thank you so much for joining us.
Magaziner: This is great. Thank you.
Donnis: Some say there are no second acts in American life, but a former Providence police captain who helped lead the department during a stormy phase a quarter century ago did not get the memo. Jack Ryan now consults with law enforcement on the use of force by officers, and he even turned up as an expert in a recent FRONTLINE documentary. You can read more about that in my TGIF column posting around four this afternoon at thepublicsradio.org and on what used to be known as Twitter @IanDon. That’s it for our show. Political Roundtable is a production of The Public’s Radio. Our producers this week are Joe Tasca and Mareva Lindo. I’m Ian Donnis and I’ll see you on the radio.