Democrat Rep. Ted Lieu calls Virginia Supreme Court decision on redistricting "disgraceful"

[0:00] Virginia Democrats suffered a major setback on Friday when the state Supreme Court struck down [0:05] a congressional map recently approved by voters that could have created four Democratic House [0:10] districts. The court's majority found that the timing of the referendum process had violated [0:15] the state's constitution. Virginia Democrats say they plan to challenge that decision. [0:21] Meanwhile, furious Democratic protesters charged state capitals in Louisiana, [0:25] Alabama, and Tennessee, when legislators there took steps to redraw current district maps [0:38] that would be favorable to Republicans. Congressional maps in at least five other states have also [0:43] been changed for partisan reasons ahead of the midterm elections. CBS estimates that Republicans [0:49] are now approximately nine seats closer to keeping control of the House. [0:53] We go now to California Congressman Ted Lieu. He is the vice chair of the Democratic [0:58] Caucus and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. He joins us this morning from Los [1:02] Angeles. Good morning to you. Good morning, Margaret. So you are in Democratic [1:09] leadership. You just heard us lay out what's going on with redistricting. How concerned [1:13] are you that Republicans now hold the advantage given the recent court decisions? [1:20] Thank you, Margaret, for that question. Let me just first say happy Mother's Day to all the mothers [1:26] across America. Regarding your question, I would disagree that Republicans may have a nice [1:33] nine-seat advantage because that's based on data from last term. And the Trump coalition has [1:40] completely collapsed because of skyrocketing gas prices, surging inflation. And if you look at the [1:47] polling data and the results we've had in special elections this year as well as last year, [1:51] we think the Republicans may have an advantage of anywhere between three to five additional seats. [1:57] That is not enough for them to stop a Democratic blue wave coming this November. And the best thing [2:03] to do when a court does something outlandish like the Virginia Supreme Court is to get back up and fight [2:11] and make sure we win in the midterms. But that Virginia push by Democrats, you spent more than [2:18] 60 million dollars on that redistricting effort. Wouldn't those funds have been better spent on [2:24] those frontline candidates and arguing on the issues? So what the Virginia Supreme Court did [2:32] was not only wrong, it was disgraceful. They basically said, hey, Virginia, spend all this [2:39] taxpayer's money holding an election, do all this stuff. And oh, by the way, just kidding, [2:44] that election didn't count. The court could have stopped this by not having an election in the first [2:49] place. They suckered the people of Virginia. It was a complete disgrace. Now, most of the money [2:54] that Democrats spent in the race is called C4 money. So that's not direct hard money that we're [3:00] going to need for races in the midterms. But it was taxpayers' money that was wasted because of the [3:05] disgraceful opinion by the Supreme Court. You think it was worth the financial cost? I mean, [3:10] are Democrats going to somehow continue to fight this in court? We're going to look at all available [3:18] options. We're definitely going to try to keep fighting this battle. And I just want to note, [3:23] the best way, again, if someone shoves you down, is to get right back up and fight back. And that's [3:28] what we're going to do. And of these four seats in Virginia, we believe we're going to win two of [3:32] them in the midterms. And that's what we're doing. We're fighting back. Okay. So you still believe [3:38] that Democrats can retake the House. What is your main message? [3:42] We will take the House. On what message? [3:49] The American people voted in Donald Trump because they wanted lower costs, and he lied to them. [3:55] We have surging inflation, skyrocketing gas prices. The Trump tariffs have raised costs across [4:03] many products across America. People are drowning in debt and in bills. And Democrats are going to [4:09] reduce health care costs, lower costs across the board, reduce your energy costs. That's the message [4:15] How are you going to do that? Democrats shut down the government to have an argument over [4:18] health care, and they didn't get any policy concessions, and premiums went up. You lost [4:22] that fight. Well, actually, we passed through the House an extension of ACA tax credits for three [4:30] years. We urged the Senate to pass that legislation as well. Democrats, when we get control, we're going [4:36] to reverse the massive Medicaid cuts, the Medicare cuts, and the cuts of ACA that Trump and Republicans [4:42] put in last year. Let me ask you about your position on the Foreign Affairs Committee. [4:48] Secretary Rubio said Taiwan will likely be discussed during President Trump's visit to China this week [4:54] to meet with Xi Jinping. This is a hugely consequential summit. On Friday, Taiwan's parliament approved [5:01] $25 billion in funds to buy more American weapons. Are you largely supportive at this point of the Trump [5:08] administration's willingness to strengthen Taiwan's defense? Both Democratic and Republican [5:15] administrations have had the exact same policy, which is to preserve the current status quo, [5:21] and we're trying to keep China from doing anything stupid in the Indo-Pacific, including a military [5:27] conflict. And I just want to emphasize that the Iran war has shown that we need a brand new strategy [5:34] in the Indo-Pacific, because in any prolonged conflict with China or Russia, the U.S. will run [5:40] out of defensive munitions. We already started running out of defensive munitions in a war that [5:45] lasted less than 60 days. And even against a second-rate military like Iran, they struck multiple U.S. [5:53] bases. So in any overseas conflict, our overseas bases will be obliterated by Russia and China. We need [5:59] a new defense strategy, and I call on the Pentagon to deliver that to Congress. [6:04] Well, President Trump has made these record-large promises of arms sales to Taiwan. [6:11] Are you saying that America actually can't deliver on them because the stockpiles are so depleted and [6:15] the industrial base can't deliver? That's absolutely correct. We don't have enough defensive munitions [6:23] in any prolonged conflict with Russia and China that will sustain what we need to do. We could even do [6:30] this in Iran of a war of less than 60 days. We started to run low on defensive munitions. [6:36] And part of the problem is some of these missiles, for example, take a long time to make. We basically [6:42] make 96 of some of these defensive missiles a year. That's just not enough. [6:48] I want to ask you about AI. The Times report, New York Times reported that President Trump is [6:52] considering an executive order that would implement some government oversight over new AI models. I know [6:58] you have legislation on AI. I just want to first say, as a recovering computer science major, [7:11] I think it is horrible for their AI industry to run wild. We need to have reasonable guardrails. [7:19] Yep. Okay. Sorry. I think we're having... Can you hear me? [7:23] Yeah. I think we're both having audio issues there, Congressman. But I'm going to [7:28] go to commercial break here. Thank you.