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News 12 Staff

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I'm Mark Sudall. Welcome back to Power in Politics. Joining me now is state rep Matt Blumenthal. Welcome. Thanks for having me, Mark. Nice to have you. Now, you say Connecticut elections are under threat. Why is that? Well, all we have to do is look at what Donald Trump and the Trump administration has been doing recently. Look, this is the man who tried to strong arm Georgia elections officials in 2020 into finding him 11,780 votes. He tried to push them into. Putting together fraudulent slates of electors and then of course there was January 6th, but we don't have to look back to 2020. Just a few weeks ago we saw a shocking raid on Georgia elections facilities by the federal government apparently directed by Trump himself, and they took ballots, they took equipment. Recently he said that he thinks that Republicans should nationalize and take over our elections. We've seen the scenes of chaos and violence and destruction in Minnesota. And allies like Steve Bannon have said that Trump should use immigration and law enforcement to intimidate and interfere with voters at the polls. We can't let that happen here in Connecticut. We have to take action. And you wrote this op ed in the Hartford Courant about this, um, and we are hearing more states that that now have to turn over some of their election information to the administration. Is that right? Yeah, we're not gonna let that happen. We're going to protect Connecticut voters' private voter information. In fact, we took action on that this week. We passed legislation that would prevent the Secretary of State's office from turning over detailed voter information about individual voters to the president without a court order, and we also took actions to protect voters' private voter data from scammers or other. Who would try to interfere with them or their right to vote, we have the primary authority as the states to regulate and administer elections. The framers gave that power to us not only to allow for a flourishing of different blooms of electoral democracy, but also as a bulwark against tyranny. We have a duty and a power to act, and here in Connecticut we will not shirk that duty. Now there's also a Connecticut bill that would bar ICE agents within 250 ft of a polling place. Talk about that. Yeah, so this is a vital protection not only for individuals to go vote but also to ensure that they have confidence they can go vote. Look, we've seen the scenes of chaos and violence in Minneapolis. We don't want that happening here. We don't want people having a reasonable fear that they may encounter immigration or law enforcement or some form of violence or intimidation at the polls. So we want to ensure that there's not. To be any law enforcement activity unless with federal court oversight and with coordination with our election officials and we also want to give people the opportunity to exercise their vote by absentee ballot if they are afraid for whatever reason to go to the polls, they should be able to vote absentee. The voters of Connecticut overwhelmingly passed a constitutional amendment to allow absentee voting for all. It's time for us to finally implement that measure, not only to expand access to the ballot generally, but as a vital voter protection measure for this fall, given everything that Donald Trump and his administration are trying to do now. The president says here recently that voting in Connecticut is corrupt, and part of that is because your father. Richard Blumenthal keeps getting reelected. How do you respond to that? Well, look, every state has a few issues with elections. There's no such thing as a perfect election, but I would posit that the overwhelming victories that Richard Blumenthal and Democrats have posted in the past are a result of their hard work, and there is simply no way that the very small amount of irregularities in elections. That are very focused could possibly account for the massive margins that he and many other Democrats have racked up in this state. It clearly reflects the will of the people and instead of trying to blame the voters or elections, I think Donald Trump should probably try to pursue some more popular policies. All right, let's switch gears now here. What is the agenda for the reproductive Rights Caucus this session? So we have a very detailed agenda for the session to protect the full spectrum of reproductive health care in this state. One of those elements is to provide additional protections to our providers and residents against out of state attack, particularly in the area of those who. Provide or receive telehealth. We want to make sure that that that measure is clearly protected. We also want to ensure that pharmacists and prescribing physicians are protected, and we're also taking measures to ensure that there is equitable coverage for the full spectrum of reproductive health care, including fertility coverage. So we have a measure that would make sure that everyone across the board would have equitable fertility coverage. At the reproductive Rights Caucus, we want you to have access affordably and securely and safely to the full spectrum of healthcare in the reproductive space, whether you want to start a family, expand your family, keep your family as it is, or not have a family at all. That's your choice. We want to make sure you have the health care you need to make that choice a reality in your life. What else do you hope might come up in this session? I think one of our big focuses has to be affordability. We have seen terrible inflation at the federal level, I think, enhanced and increased by the president's reckless and indiscriminate tariffs. They're just attacks on the American people. They're attacks on the people of Connecticut, and I'm hoping we're going to see some refund checks based on this Supreme Court decision striking down the tariffs. It doesn't seem like he's going in that direction. But energy is one of the biggest elements of our costs here in Connecticut. We need to ensure that there is proper oversight and accountability over your energy bills. Um, I've worked on some measures related to PUA and the citing council in the past. We have additional measures to try to increase accountability and oversight to make sure that every cent of your electric bill or your. Uh, gas bill is justified. It certainly doesn't seem like it is because we have some of the highest rates of energy costs in the country. We need to attack those and get them down in the 2 seconds we have left, your take on the State of the Union this week. Uh, the State of the Union was long, and full of lies, um, but look, I, I, I really just wish that Donald Trump would focus on the issues that are facing the American people. I hope that he can be convinced to do that. Thank you, Matt. And coming up we'll hear from the president and more on the State of the Union.

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President Donald Trump delivering the first official State of the Union address of his second term. The president touting some of the accomplishments of his first year. He set the record for the longest State of the Union in history. It was 11 hour and 47 minutes. Trump touched on inflation, saying it's down to the lowest level in 5 years. He also celebrated the tax cuts in his big, beautiful bill and voiced the need to cut down the cost of healthcare by cutting payments to insurance companies. I want to stop all payments to big insurance companies and instead give that money directly to the people so they can buy their own healthcare, which will be better healthcare at a much lower cost. Meanwhile, many Democrats skipped the speech Tuesday night to protest the president. Among them, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy and Congressman Jim Himes. They both spoke at an alternative rally in Washington. The People's State of the Union featured many speakers, including Senator Murphy, who said it's time for people to try to take back power. But by being here for the people's State of the Union, you're going to hear the real story of America, a story of an America that is under siege, but a story of America that is not going to take it, that is going to fight back and is going to reclaim this country for everything that is good and right about the United States of America. Governor Lamont meantime reacting to the State of the Union, saying President Trump quote outlined his administration's priorities, but for too many families in Connecticut and across the country, the reality of this administration can be summed up by increased costs and unpredictability, all of which Americans are tired of. Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger giving the official response from Democrats. She said the president is working for himself and not the American people. He's enriching himself, his family, his friends. The scale of the corruption is unprecedented, putting his name and face on buildings all over our nation's capital. This is not what our founders envisioned, not by a long shot. Well, that's all our time. I'm Mark Sudoff. Thanks for watching.

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Republican gubernatorial candidate and State Sen. Ryan Fazio and State Rep. Matt Blumenthal join the show this week.

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