Trump is Making Us Less “Safe” | Rep. Eric Swalwell
by Marc Elias
Democracy Docket
Feb 7, 2025
Defending Democracy — Complete Podcast
California Congressman Eric Swalwell joins the podcast to discuss the first few weeks of the second Trump administration, how Trump’s actions are harming our democracy and security and Democrats’ plan to fight back.
[Marc Elias] Donald Trump is a threat to the National and domestic security of the United States, and I have the perfect guest to discuss it today. Congressman Eric Swalwell is here to talk about Donald Trump, his Republican colleagues, and what everyone can do to help fight back. Welcome back to Defending Democracy. I'm Mark Elias. Welcome Congressman Swalwell.
[California Congressman Eric Swalwell] Hey Marc. Thanks for having me on.
[Marc Elias] All right. I have been so eager to talk to you, because there are few members of Congress who I feel are more plugged into kind of, not just what is procedurally happening on the floor in the House, or what's procedurally happening with this bill or that bill, but the overall strategy that Republicans are engaging in right now.
And so let me just start with an open-ended big question: "What the hell is going on?"
[California Congressman Eric Swalwell] Yeah, it is flood the zone. That's the strategy. That's the tactic right now, to carry out this strategy of gutting the federal government, putting in place Trump loyalists, and just massively exposing us. And I believe from a Homeland Security point of view, exploiting us for another terrorist attack, or domestic attack, or even a cyber attack. Because these efforts are taking thousands of the best people in cyber from the FBI and the CIA off the beat. And that is my biggest concern here. Because our principal job in government is to make people safe right now. We're not safer with these actions.
[Marc Elias] All right, I'm going to ask you a couple of specific questions about that in a second. But before we get to the issues involving national security -- FBI Kash Patel, Pam Bondi, who just got confirmed; Tulsi Gabbard, I mean the list is quite long in that arena -- before I get to that, I want to ask you what your sense is of speaker Johnson's plan. And I ask in this context: normally, the way checks and balances work in this country, is that there are certain prerogatives that Congress jealously guards. And they jealously guard those prerogatives from the Executive branch, whether there's a Democratic president or a Republican president. Sure they may soften the edges of their prerogatives with their own party, they may be a little more gentle in the way they do it, but usually, particularly if you're the Appropriations Committee, or if you are in the House of Representatives, which jealously guards the ability to tax and spend more than anything else, like you get pretty prickly if you start to see the Executive branch seemingly not paying attention to Congress-As-The-Decider of what money is spent and not spent, where are your Republican colleagues? Are they like hiding from this? Are they going along with it? Are they delusional? What are they doing?
[California Congressman Eric Swalwell] Let me show you speaker Johnson's plan for Donald Trump: [holds phone to his ear] "Hello, Mr. President. Yes, we'll do that. Thank you."
That's his plan. And we saw this week where Donald Trump, who promised that we're going to get out of endless wars, and that we're not going to see that anymore, announced that we are going to be occupying Gaza, which stunned his own Chief of Staff if you look at the facial expression that she betrayed, or revealed, when she was standing behind him. And then Speaker Johnson, the next day at a press conference, when asked whether he supports that, he's like, "Yeah, we're supportive of that," which again is not what Speaker Johnson has said in the past about endless wars.
They're afraid. They're really afraid.
I used to think it was only being afraid about losing their job, and I would hope that I serve with people who could get other jobs. But it's worse than that. It's a personal security fear. And they do not want to be Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger. They look at that life and they see it as a life of exile, a life where you need 24-hour personal security, and you're no longer welcome within the party, or at the parties, so to speak. And they don't want it. And their spouses are telling them, "Don't do this to our family." And I'm telling you this because that's what they've told me. And so they shrink any time they're supposed to do what you just described, which is to assert their Article 1 equities, which is that Congress has the power of the purse. We're elected every two years because we're supposed to be more reflective than any other branch of government, which is what the people want as a Representative. But they're not Representatives. They're just repetitive of what Donald Trump is doing.