Rep. Mike Levin responds to State of the Union speech

S1: Well , welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. On today's show , Congressman Mike Levin joins me to talk about his takeaways from Trump's State of the Union speech and what it all means for San Diego. This is KPBS Midday Edition connecting our communities through conversation. President Trump delivered the longest state of the Union speech on record last night in nearly two hours of talking. He touted his first year back in office as a turnaround for the ages. He defended his administration's immigration and economic policies as well.

S2: Today our border is secure. Our spirit is restored. Inflation is plummeting. Incomes are rising fast. The roaring economy is roaring like never before. And our enemies are scared. Our military and police are stacked and America is respected again. Perhaps like never before.

S1: All right. Democratic Congressman Mike Levin , who represents California's 49th district , which includes parts of northern San Diego County , was actually there and joins me now. Welcome to Midday Edition.

S3: Thank you. Jade , always good to be with you.

S1: Always glad to have you on.

S3: I think it was also the most partisan state of the Union in history. I was sitting there waiting for the president to extend an olive branch in any way , shape or form on virtually any policy , waiting to try to unite in any way , shape or form. And instead he chose once again , as he has really for his entire political career , a division over trying to bring the country together. And it really is a sad state of affairs. You know , I long for the days when we had a president of either party that actually was interested in uniting the country. There are so many important issues that we need to address affordability. Of course , being at the top of the list and I believe during a two hour speech , I think he only dedicated 3 or 4 minutes to affordability. And really , you know , I'm happy that he brought out the gold medal hockey team. I'm I'm happy they awarded , uh , you know , San Diego's own Royce Williams in the way they did. But it really at the end , it was just such a partisan partisan speech. I , I just left shaking my head.

S1: Needless to ask , but would you agree with Trump's assessment that the economy is roaring ? What's your what's your assessment to.

S4:

S3: You know , the reality is that inflation continues to to increase in certain areas. Costs are way too high. And gasoline , groceries , housing and so many other areas. Electricity. Uh , you know , the president said gas is $1.80. It's really not $1.85. Uh , he ran on the premise that , uh , costs would come down on , um , electricity. They've gone up 13%. He said they would go down on housing. He said they would go down on groceries. Uh , his his tale is completely rosy. Uh , and really , uh , you know , in many ways at odds with reality and what the average person is feeling and experiencing every day. And and of course , on tariffs , you know , the Supreme Court justices that were there , I think 4 or 5 of them were there in the front couple of rows. And he looked at them , uh , you know , and and frankly , uh , they did the right thing in deciding what was so obviously , uh , a cut and dried case where the president had over , uh , ridden the , the , uh , constitutional responsibility of Congress when it pertains to to taxes and tariffs and going it alone. He did so illegally. And he thinks he can continue to to act with impunity and doesn't really care what the courts do or really what Congress does. And unfortunately , the members of Congress from his party were all too eager to to stand and applaud even when he said , I don't need Congress's help. They stood and applauded. Uh , and , you know , for for reasons I will never fully understand. Jade.

S1:

S3: So that was unfortunate. But , you know , we'll just have to to wait and see. They're talking about using the budget reconciliation process again , potentially. I find that to be hard to believe that they're going to be able to do that , whether on tariffs or on health care or anything else. And of course , he talked about a great health care plan that doesn't really exist. It basically sounds like he wants to , you know , take health care away for millions and millions of people via the cuts to the Affordable Care Act and the other cuts that are coming. The Medicaid and Medicare even is going to be impacted by the decisions they've made. Also , they can provide unlimited funds for Ice and a tax cut for rich people. Uh , there were some things that he said that I liked. As I said , I like the.

S4: Well , Michael , that we're going to we're going.

S1: To get to those those. More.

S4: More.

S1: Bipartisan moments in the speech. But I wanted to ask you , because one piece of legislation he did highlight was the Save act , and it would require proof of citizenship to vote. That recently passed the House. You voted against it. Tell us about that bill and where it stands now.

S3: Well , it was a total mischaracterization by the president of what that bill would actually do. Uh , he made it sound like it's just voter ID , and how can you be against voter ID ? The problem with the Save act is it would require a birth certificate. It would require naturalization papers. It would require a passport in order to be able to register to vote. And then you would have to have ID that would match up with those documents. The problem is , around 20 million Americans don't have one of those documents. And if you are a recently married woman , or maybe married years ago , you may not have updated your paperwork to be consistent with your married name. So all the independent analyses suggest that this would wreak havoc. It would prevent millions and millions of people from voting. And the you know , the evidence is that , um , you know , uh , overwhelming numbers of people , as the president did say in one poll , suggested they support some form of identification. But this is not that the Save act is is simply not what he is pitching. And the current law that's on the books actually came from George W Bush signing it into law about 20 years ago. Uh , to to make it easier to vote , not harder to vote. We want people who are legally eligible to vote to do so. And we want to make it as easy as possible for those who are legally eligible to vote as as possible. That shouldn't be controversial. But , you know , it seems like the president wants to pick a fight on this , but he's once again misrepresenting the facts.

S1: And that that Save act is now awaiting a vote in the Senate. Correct ? Correct.

S3: That's exactly. Right.

S4: Right. Yeah.

S1: You know , the border and immigration were also major topics throughout the speech.

S3: We have said that Ice needs to stay out of sensitive locations like schools and churches and hospitals , and come election time , polling places. We've said that administrative warrants are not sufficient , that you need judicial warrants. And of course , we have advocated for masks to come off and for Ice agents to be required to to carry identification. President didn't address any of that. And my guess at the state of the Union , Stephanie Quintino is a American citizen whose parents lived in the US for 35 years , literally did not break a single criminal or even civil law. The only thing they'd ever done wrong was the status of their documentation. They had ineffective counsel , their lawyers wound up getting disbarred , and they were allowed to stay year after year after year. They voluntarily checked in with Ice every year. Jade until this past February , when they were deported to Colombia after a miserable , miserable few weeks in some of our facilities , including Otay Mesa , I didn't hear the president address any of the consequences of Stephen Miller's mass deportation agenda being carried out by Kristi Noem. And that's too bad.

S1:

S5:

S3: Leave that to , uh , pundits and to , uh , to others to to unpack. I felt , though , what he talked about American citizens and he tried to put everybody on the spot. I immediately thought of two things. I thought , what about Alex Peretti and Renee ? Good. They're American citizens. Do they count because they were murdered ? They were murdered by Ice in Minnesota. And moreover , I thought about our Constitution and specifically the fifth and the 14th amendments , which don't just apply to citizens , apply to everybody in the United States. Equal protection under the law was not only intended per the founders , was not only intended for US citizens , but for everyone in this country and for the president to to disregard 250 years of history while at the same time espousing , uh , you know , the greatness. And and I wonder if he's even opened a history book , uh , much less took the time to study any of the Constitution that would apply. Hmm.

S4: Hmm.

S1: You know , in addition to the words of the state of the Union speech , you know , there are also theatrics. About an hour into the speech , President Trump urged those in attendance to stand up to show support for prioritizing citizens over those he atrociously called illegal aliens. He chastised those who did not stand. Take a listen.

S2: Isn't that a shame ? You should be ashamed of yourself , not standing up. You should be ashamed of yourself.

S1:

S5:

S3: That he was just looking for a made for TV moment to try to rile up his base. And unfortunately , that's the only thing Donald Trump knows to do is just double down on the division. At a time when our country is so desperate for unity , for people who are trying to turn down the temperature to bring us together rather than further divide , I firmly believe that most Americans , if you get them away from their social media bubble , if you get them away from their cable news bubble , uh , they want to be able to , um , you know , live with more , more , um , a sense of a sense of , uh , united purpose in our nation , uh , not as enemies with those of the other political party. Uh , there's so much more that unites us as Americans. The president just plays into that division , uh , and uses it as a weapon to the detriment of our country. And I think it's bad for our country. And I think our adversaries around the world , uh , do better when we're divided internally.

S1:

S3: No. And I was thinking again , uh , again. Alex and Renee. Good. So if you want to stand up for American citizens , how about the two of them ? How about the other American citizens that are being caught up in this awful ice situation ? Uh , and then other the other thing I was thinking of was our constitution. Jade , uh , equal protection under the fifth and the 14th amendment doesn't just apply to , uh , to US citizens in the United States of America. That's the Constitution. The president may not like it. The president may not like what the founders intended. He may want a different country where you treat the immigrant as an enemy or as an alien or whatever he wants to say. But that's not what the founders intended. Well , and that's , uh , that's. Yep. Go ahead.

S1: Well , quickly , before we go in our last 30s here , you know , we're hearing more and more about the upcoming midterm elections later this year.

S5:

S3: More resolved and more determined than ever to win , not just to win in our community , but to win across the country and to win big. Because when the president says the only way the other side can win is to rig the election , things like that. Boy , that is just a bunch of nonsense , shade. And I'll tell you , the best remedy is to win big without any doubt , so that the president , if he tries to claim fraud or he tries to say that vote by mail is fraudulent or whatever he may try to do. We have to win and win big to put an end to any claims of fraud or anything like that. We have to send a clear signal to this president that this is not okay.

S1: I've been speaking with Democratic Congressmember Mike Levin. He represents California's 49th district , which includes parts of San Diego and Orange County. Representative Levin , thank you so much for being here.

S3: Thank you so much , Jade.

S1: And we did reach out to Republican Congressmember Darrell Issa , the only other congressmember from San Diego who attended the state of the Union. But he did not respond to our invitation. That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.