Hello again, KCIW listeners, and welcome to Curry
Cafe. A few tech,
issues today, but we're gonna get going. I'm
volunteer Rick McNamer.
Every Sunday from three to four, your host,
Ray Gary, and I put together a panel
of guests to discuss topics of interest in
our community.
Listeners can participate
by texting in questions or comments to (541)
661-4098.
Again, that's (541)
661-4098.
And,
since we're a little late, we're gonna get
going here. So, Ray, you can tell us
about what's going on today. Here we Yeah.
Yeah. Well, as far as what's going on,
we, We
Our main engineer is out sick, and we're
kinda fuddling through trying to make all the
connections between here and Washington or whoever we're
talking to. And, we have one guest here
in the studio, and I'll let him introduce
himself in a moment, and then he can
introduce our next guest.
So Great.
Take it away. Take it away, Brent. You're
on. Thanks for having me in the studio
today. I'm Brett Cecil from Port Orford.
I've also just by chance happened to be
running for House District 1 in our Oregon
state house
currently. And we are here so that we
can speak with our US representative,
Val Hoyle, and she's on the line
to visit with us now. So, Rick, I'm
gonna toss it back to you. Okay. Congresswoman
Val Hoyle, thank you for joining us. And
if you would kinda come on in and
tell us about yourself and what all the
stuff we're gonna talk about today.
So first of all, thank thank you for
having me
on your show,
especially with Brett. He's a a long time
good friend,
and,
I am in DC.
There's a lot going on.
Oh, man. We know so. Yeah. That's an
understatement. It's hard to even know where to
start,
but we're trying to make sure that we're
both doing the job of serving the community
while
standing up and speaking out for the best
interest of the people in the 4th Congressional
District.
Most of my colleagues
come from places that are all red or
all blue, and that is not the 4th
Congressional District.
It goes from Lincoln County. It's all of
Benton County, Lane County,
half of Douglas from the coast through Roseburg,
all of Coos and all of Curry County.
So, you know, if the if the large
district is politically diverse,
there are four,
native tribes
in the district and a third of the
members of two other tribes
as well. So,
working with tribal
tribal nations is is a big part of
what we do.
But, you know, I just try and focus
on being practical.
And
right now, what I see is that we're
spending $2,000,000,000
a day
in a foreign war
with no
plan for an end, putting Americans in danger.
And,
that is my biggest
my biggest concern right now. I mean, we're
blowing our deficit up. And and, again,
Congress Congress
has the constitutional authority
to declare war, and I will tell you
that the junior junior people at Fox News
knew that we were gonna go and attack
Iran
before I, as a member of Congress, knew,
and that's wrong.
The week that that we went into Iraq,
Mike Johnson canceled
the,
foreign affairs
and homeland security
committee hearings.
I don't know why my colleagues want
to give away the power that the constitution,
gave to congress, but this is what I'm
here trying to fight for.
Well and thank you. That was one of
my big questions, and I'm gonna give just
a tiny disclaimer
disclaimer about me. I happen to be the
lone Californian here. I live just across the
border,
but I spend
many, many days and hours up here at
Southern Oregon. We've met with him very carefully
before we were allowed in the company across
allowed me on the station.
But, like yeah. Agree. And congresswoman, you answered
my one of my biggest questions about that.
This Iran,
war
is,
not only wrong, but pretty crazy on what
we're doing. And I think it's unpopular across
the political realm. Across the world. And the
world. Hello. It is well, across the world,
we are,
the president is ignoring ignoring
our our NATO allies.
I met with some Canadians this week. I
I I have family that live in in
Europe, and they are
I mean, they're appalled. They're afraid. They
are saying, what is your president doing? And
the fact of the matter is I did
not agree
when we went into Iraq,
but that administration
spent over a year
preparing for it, you know,
trying to build up a a reason for
going into going into Iraq. Again, it didn't
turn out well. We lost
American lives.
But this, there was no preparation.
We've used three years' worth of missiles,
right, in two weeks,
and we're putting American lives on the line.
And when we put boots on the ground
and it's, you know, our kids that are
filling those boots,
I think we have to be very, very
careful. And this does not seem to be
well thought out, and we're putting Americans
very much in danger.
Well, I'm wondering if, if Barron is considering,
putting a couple of years in the military.
He'd be the first Trump to have been
in the military. He's not. Yeah. I'm not.
He is not. They're they're saying it's because
he's five nine.
Yeah.
You know He couldn't he couldn't be accepted.
Not Donald Trump's kids going in. Yeah. No.
That's all I'm saying. No.
And and you're so right about the it
is apples and well, that's the right thing
to say, but the to the Iraq and
it's Iran, Iraq and Iran. I mean, even
I was way back there was kinda believing
that,
there were weapons of mass destruction there for
a while until
it proved out to be not true at
all. And by then, the damage was done.
And this thing came on like gangbusters, boy.
I'll just like within a day, we were
we were there.
Do you see And and, again, we are
at we are at war, and we still
have the the president has not come to
congress. Now they're asking for $200,000,000,000,
right, after we blew a $4,000,000,000,000
hole in the budget with the Republican budget
bill last last year.
So $200,000,000,000
for what?
There's there's an old we can continue another
endless war abroad?
I can't vote for that. There's there's an
old song by Gil Scott Heron. I don't
know how many of you are familiar with
called Whitey on the Moon.
And, basically, he's a guy, in the story
living in a a ghetto.
And,
his sister
just got bit by a rat. She they
can't pay doctor bills.
Arms and necks begins as well, and why
he's on the moon.
The priorities? The pri yeah. Exactly. Yes. Well
no. And it boy, it's just not a
laughing matter. It it's we're in a scary
place. And not only, congresswoman, you you talked
about how he has the Trump administration
has
alienated
our allies and friends
and seems to
prop up
Putin for sure,
and
maybe Xi from China a little bit over
all of this.
Well and look at China is preparing to
invade Taiwan.
There's the big scare. We know that there
there you know, Russia
is now that everyone is distracted
is going full bore in Ukraine.
Our European NATO allies
understand that Russia
getting closer
to,
you know, to their countries is a danger
for everyone.
We pulled out of USAID,
and people might say, why are we spending
money taking care of people in Africa or
these other countries? Well, that gives us
soft power. Right? I believe.
And we,
yeah, we we took that money out, and
China is going in and developing those relationships
with those countries. I mean,
what what I I talk to people, business
owners here in,
you know, in Oregon, in my district,
And with the tariffs they're paying for goods
coming in and the the we're we're an
export dependent state,
and people
abroad are buying less American things. Like, let's
just go to our wine industry.
40%
of the wines that we sell
go to Canada, and that market ended overnight
because we alienated
our allies.
And right now, we should be spending money
on making sure people have access to health
care, on bringing manufacturing
back, on economic development,
on,
you know, addressing the needs of the American
people. We have a president that was elected,
and I talked to a lot of very
conservative Republicans
who've voted for Trump. And they said they
voted for Trump because he would put America
first, and they don't understand
why he's blowing apart the budget
and invading other countries,
that was not part of what they voted
for.
No. Not at all. And, congresswoman, since you
are on the quote quote inside,
do you get a feeling or a sense
that there's really a lot more,
not how support
for I should say non support for what
the Trump administration is doing? Because it's really
some pretty crazy stuff. But and if you
do see that, are they why are they
not speaking out more?
Well, I don't know. There's some people that
that are. We've got, of course, Thomas Massie,
right, where I might disagree with him, but
he isn't he is a he is a
man of principle. And, you know, part of
that is,
you know, not busting the budget.
Don Bacon and a number of other
Republicans have spoken up. We have Republicans that
spoke up against the erratic care tariff policy,
and Donald Trump came in and supported their
primary opponents because what he wants from congress
is for this body
to be, number one,
only responsive to Republican needs, and we represent
almost half the population.
That isn't right or fair. And number two,
to the,
the Duma, just a a checkboxing
a a checkbox institution that gives the executive
branch
what they want, and that is not our
job.
Our job as a separate and equal branch
of government is to add checks and balances.
It's the judiciary,
the legislative branch, and the executive.
And, you know, I I'm very frustrated with
my colleagues, with Mike Johnson in particular,
for not carrying out the duty
outlined in the constitution that they took an
oath to. The other thing that I've been
talking to people about is the
is the rising gas prices.
Right? We we've got, you know, barrel the
oil prices, gas prices are going through the
roof. And because
of the blockade in the Strait Of Hormuz,
we're not gonna see them come down anytime
quick.
This was I think the president thought that
going into Iran
would be like Venezuela,
which, you know, going into any sovereign countries.
I'm not gonna I I I certainly will
not speak up for Nicolas Maduro. He's a
horrible
fervor dictator.
But invading another country
just because,
you know, we we want to do some
manifest destiny thing and thinking going into Iran
where with the kind of
sophisticated
tariff cells that they have with their ability
to shut down the Strait Of Hormuz, which
so many goods come through and the fact
that we're not getting oil, Americans are going
to be paying the price.
And, you know, they're they're already seeing it.
I don't see this ending anytime soon, and
that is terrifying.
It is terrifying.
And, you know, I think most Americans will
certainly agree Iran
is
a horrible situation
with Formal. Killing in their own people. I
mean, it it end up in that way,
but, boy,
I I did watch an interview the other
day, with
Christiane Amanpour,
who I happen to love, but And he's
from Iran. Yeah. Iran. And,
like she said, there's plenty of people that
there's a lot of wonderful, smart people there,
but they're under such,
horrific leadership. And I don't even call it
leadership,
But it's
it wasn't it wasn't worth doing what we
did. We've exacerbated that situation, I think, rather
than Oh, I I, Helped anything.
Helped.
I've,
yeah, I've spoken with a number
of Iranian Americans,
who I've I've gotten to be good friends
with. And
they I mean,
you know,
Ayatollah Khomeini,
again, horrific dictator. They murdered tens of thousands
of their own people. I've spoken to women
who were who were imprisoned at 14 and
15 and watched their family members and friends
get murdered. I mean,
the Ayatollah Khomeini is a
was a horrible dictator.
And
what needs to happen is not that The
US should go in, but
that
the people of Iran
the people of Iran should be able to
determine to overthrow
that that current regime. That current regime in
Iran is not supported by the people. But
now that we're we're bombing their energy plans,
we're
threatening to bomb to to blow off everything
in Iran, we are hurting we're targeting
civilian infrastructure,
not military infrastructure, civilian infrastructure.
So what are we doing? No one starts
a revolution on a full stomach, and we
are making the Iranian people hate us. We
are putting civilians in even more danger and
peril.
For what?
I I I still don't understand. They were
not a direct threat to us,
and there were other ways to handle this.
But, again,
the president
took a notion,
listened to direction from Benjamin Netanyahu,
and
decided
to go in to Iran, and now we're
stuck in a quagmire that we were just
like we were in Vietnam, in Afghanistan,
in Iraq. It has never turned out well
for us.
And there's another elephant in the room,
Benjamin Netanyahu, who many years ago, I kinda
thought was okay, but he's turned into,
a terrorist. Yeah. Look what's happened in Gaza,
and it's still going on. I'm wondering,
yeah, how much of this, yeah,
conversation between Trump and Netanyahu
kind of a try to get a distraction
for what everything else is going on? Now
I'm a quick We are really Go ahead.
Oh, go ahead. Sorry. We were really
oh, go ahead. I was just gonna throw
in real. The Epstein files. I know that
gets kicked around and Yeah. As far as
world problems, it might be way down there.
But that was another horrific thing that we've
got going on, and nobody's really paid the
well, maybe a couple people. But that was
my point is and I see this administration,
I'll I'll say it, evil enough to do
something like this to distract from not only
that, but from everything else that's going on.
We we have a whole bunch of distractions
that we can distract away from the war
with the Epstein and then distract,
to something else.
Right. Yeah. We have enough, Right. And I
wanna bring that point up. Go ahead, and
thank you for being your representative.
I I just wanted to point out that
I see all of this to be a
gigantic distraction for the American people. We're all
looking at different directions and ping ponging between
issues and what's going on. The war is
a horrific thing.
And you might guess that since I'm running
for a house seat in our Oregon house,
I might be concerned what's going on in
our state and how this war is going
to affect us. I, as a candidate right
now, and I'm a grassroots candidate, so my
constituents help me with small dollar donations,
but I'm looking at $5 gasoline in in
Port Orford. For me to gas up
to crisscross Douglas County to the California border
and all the way up to Allegheny in
Coos County is my district area
is a lot of driving for me to
get out. It's really going to affect me
personally as a candidate, but I see it
affecting my Mhmm. People are not wanting to
get out and travel.
They're concerned about what that cost is going
to be for them moving into the future.
And my question for you then is, what
can we watch for and how can we,
here at home in Oregon,
make thing make our dollar stretch a little
further? And what protections can you see from
the the converse US congressional side that could
be helpful for us here in in Oregon
at home?
Well, number number
first of all, I'll go back to the
Epstein file.
And I think,
you know, Rick, you you said,
well, you know, not as important. I I'm
sorry. But when when do we get to
the place
where
adults that rape children
aren't held accountable. This should be bipartisan. I
don't care whose name is in there. I
don't need it. And I have looked
you know, that
those you know, Donald Trump ran and said
and and Bundy said they would release the
Epstein files, and we've gotten nothing but obfuscation.
I'll tell you what. I went in to
to look at the files. You can sit
there for two hours in a room where
they're watching you. You have to log in
so they can track what you look up.
They don't give you any direction
at all. Everything is just numbered, and you
have to click on each thing. You can
do a search, but it is really, really
they have put so many obstacles in place.
But what is clear
is that
children
were raped,
period.
And that
should
be something we all agree should be prosecuted
to the fullest extent of the law. Democrat,
Republican, Indian, I don't I don't care.
And so as we're narrowing in on that,
all of a sudden, this war start.
Right? Who knows? I can't speak to the
motives
And Of the narrative. But what I can,
yeah, what I can say is that now
these gas prices
are are really high and, quite frankly, for
people in rural communities
where it's not like you can just ride
your your bike from Port Orford up to
Coos Bay. You know, for people who are
trying to get to work, I mean, this
is really a
a major part of their paycheck. So
we're looking at what we can do.
The you know, it's it's rather difficult, but
the most important thing we could do is
get our troops
out of Iran,
you know, out of out of the Middle
East
and,
certainly boots on the ground out of the
Middle East and figure out how to
solve this situation so that we can get
trade happening again. But my concern
is that, I don't know, my my grandmother
always used to say burnt bridges are are
much harder to walk across. We have burned
so many relationship. The people do not trust
us. And killing the Ayantollah Khomeini,
Right? The people who have taken his place
are even more radical. Well So so,
Brett, I when you say how do we
stretch dollars,
I don't know. But
we No. Out of nowhere and out. And
we have to,
yeah, we have to rely
on our community for food, fuel, and fiber
and make sure that we're taking care of
ourselves
as well as possible.
That's, you know Thanks for I'm a little
bit more interested in that question because, yeah,
that a big thing that that comes to
mind for me is that I believe it's
$300,000,000
from the state budget. Oregon state budget has
been disappeared in the whole federal renewal
of of money for our state in the
very early days of of the Trump administration.
How are we going to fill that gap
here in our state? When I have people
that are concerned in Curry County, you don't
wanna pay a levy so that we have
a sheriff's department that's operating properly. People don't
wanna they're concerned about paying a 6¢
increase in the gas tax because that's going
to be hard for them to do. But
we have this $300,000,000
gap.
How are we gonna close that for our
health care and our education, making sure our
kids are taken care of, and transportation? That's
gonna impact our economy
here locally
in Brookings and Curry County and the state
of Oregon in ways I don't think any
of us can see right now. And that's
what I really wanna try and get folks
to pay attention to.
I I think that's true. Although I will
say so
it's like a,
I don't know, the cognitive dissonance to both
speak out against what I see is us
careening toward,
you know,
in a authoritarian
regime
and,
some you know, speaking out against unconstitutional
things that are happening while also doing doing
the job and representing the district. So
we have been able to get funding for,
for infrastructure,
for community projects, for, you know, water, sewer,
for the hospital.
If we're able to get our land spills
through,
I you know, I've introduced the Southwest Oregon
Watershed and Salmon Protection Act
and and the Smith River National Recreational
Area Expansion Act.
Those are going to be included if we
can get a land package through.
And that
that's really, really important
for
protecting the water of, you know, Southern Oregon
and Northern California.
So there are things that we're getting done,
not as much as we should. The administration
is being, of course, you know, when Democrats
are in control, Republicans are in control, they
can write the rules. But this is the
only president
in my lifetime
that has
openly said today, last night or today, it's
it's so hard to
know what was said when. But are you
laughing? Twenty four seven. President
yeah. Right.
You know, while he was up at night,
you know,
posting on on whatever social,
he said that Democrats are the enemy.
Like, he compared us to Iran.
We represent people.
We're elected members of a congressional body, and
this president has basically said we are the
enemies of the state. We're the enemies of
the state because we're calling out the fact
that unconstitutional
things are happening.
This should be something that everyone
everyone,
no matter what party they're in, should call
out as wrongs. Me speaking out
in disagreement
to someone on the other side of the
aisle to a Republican
doesn't make me an enemy of the state.
But when that language is used by a
president,
it is a serious escalation. We're now gonna
see ICE in our airport.
Right? And Yeah. They're not just gonna be
operating at TSA.
That mean checking IDs of anyone coming to
the airport. Right? While they're holding an AR
16 in there, Maria, they're gonna be there
with their weapons drawn while they're checking your
ID.
Right. So, I think those things are really,
they're very dangerous, and we as Americans
should stand up whatever party we're in and
take back a check and balances
that
that we as Americans
are are provided by in our constitution,
and it makes us stronger
when we work together
on things that we can agree on. But
even if we can't disagree we can't agree,
I shouldn't be
called by the president an enemy of the
state because I'm saying, hey. I think
pedophiles should be prosecuted, and we shouldn't be
at war blowing up our budget or in
murdering, you know, having our our our people
murdered. I I mean, that seems pretty basic.
It's not. I'll I'll say I consider you
a patriot for speaking out
against that. So Yes. Thank you for doing
it. Yeah. I wanna circle around a little,
if I may, representative.
And I noticed in your press releases
early in February that you had secured over
$16,600,000
for 15 different local community projects.
I think you touched on a couple of
them a minute ago, but I was just
wondering if you might give us a quick
idea of what some of those are.
If you can remember that far back because
there's been so much going on. Yeah.
There's been so much gone and,
gone on, and we're we're actually coming up
on another round of community,
project funding.
But one that was that I was
most proud of
was,
in Curry County at the Cancer Treatment Center.
We had people in Curry County
that were,
having to go up to Eugene and drive
back in all kinds of weather. That's like,
what is that? Seven and a half hours
round trip. Right? Yep. At best. And while
you're getting chemo, while you're sick, while you
have cancer. And so getting money for that
cancer treatment center was really important.
Also, we've gotten money for,
dredging the ports.
The district,
as
as it was redistricted,
was made into a coastal district. Right? You
used to have three congressional representative
representing the coast. So now I represent two
thirds.
Suzanne Bonamici represents one third. So I'm able
to focus on coastal issues, whether that's dredging
of port, commercial fishing,
tourism,
housing, and the fact that because we don't
have a sales tax.
We have people, tourists that come in, and
they don't pay
towards water and sewer and those other kinds
of things.
We have the travel and lodging tax, and
that that's one thing. But, we've been able
to get those kind of infrastructure
projects funded.
So if I may point out in Curry
in Curry a lot of them. In Curry
County representative that you brought, I think it
was a little over a million dollars to
Curry County to improve our county jail, which
has been needed
for a really long time. And I don't
know if that's a drop in the bucket
or if it's gonna be a good part
of the bucket, but thank you for doing
that. And, also, there was a million dollars
brought for us to have, work on replacing
aging water infrastructure
here in Brookings
along Easy Street, I believe it is. So
these are dollars that come directly to our
communities and our county
here in Oregon. So thank you for doing
that. I appreciate it greatly. Well,
we do have an issue with the Curry
County Jail. Right?
And that is
we got money for upgrading it, but if
they upgrade it with the money they have,
then,
it has to be billed, and and it
needs it. There's no one that disagrees.
It has to be then built
completely up to code, which is a much
more expensive proposition,
and we don't have the money to do
that.
So
this catch 22 of we want to have
improvements
and need the ability to to make these
improvements,
you know, in a in a a staged
piecemeal way.
And,
I'm work trying to work with the state
to figure out how we get that done
because it's so desperately needed.
So for anybody out there, questions or comments,
remember, you can text in here, (541)
661-4098.
Congresswoman, I tell you, my head's spinning with
all the stuff that we're talking about. It's
very important. So I wanna go back,
well, first of all, about the travel. You
talked about that, for a lot of us
here. Now, again, yes, I'm in California, but
I go to Grants Pass and Eureka and
Coos Bay sometimes for medical.
And right now,
a lot of people go to Grants Pass
in Medford, and they're going to start having
four hour delays on January,
which could just When is that? Sorry. I
I think in early May or late April.
How long is it gonna last? For you
a few weeks. So now again, take It's
not only driving to these places. It's getting
the appointments
to go there. I have a I have
a a, neurologist appointment in August, believe it
or not. Yes. Yeah. I mean,
and, Congressman, your district, would it would the
whole district be considered rural, I'm guessing? Or
or No. No.
I have Eugene, Springfield,
Odalys. Safe. Okay.
So, like, all of Blaine County. So there's
some urban areas. I have Lincoln, Kitty,
Newport,
Coos Bay,
you know, every everyone, like, in in all
those counties. So I have some are urban,
but all of those are massive, predominantly
rural. If I may, there all of those
urban areas have a lot of rural attached
to them. That's where I was thinking too.
Yeah. They every single one of my counties
has rural.
Oh, yeah. You know, it it has has
has significant
rural areas, and that's why, you know, I
feel very lucky. And I think we would,
we would do much better if more districts
were mixed
where you can't get elected with just one
party or another.
And the I mean, this is what's wrong
with our democracy. First of all, Citizens United,
money money in politics where where people can
buy elections with dark money.
And then
also, the
gerrymandering
where we don't have
we we have very few swing districts
anymore. And that means that people only we
we're we're electing the most extreme of each
party,
and that's not
that's not helpful. I I I I I
think we should redo our election system.
I believe, like, we should be in a
multiparty.
I I think a multiparty
coalition government would be better. But right now,
we have a president that doesn't even want
to work with
half of the people
that are that have been elected in congress.
So we have we have bigger issues right
now. Oh, do you see any And he's
he's trying to elect his own voters, essentially.
We're voting in reverse. So he wants
to have Well pick out his voters, and
that's all that's gonna vote. And that's a
huge about elections. Let's if we can delve
it into a little bit, the, generally, the
Republicans' disdain for mail in voting. I've never
understood that. Let me grab that. Please. Because
and and the other part is the they
oh, it's fraudulent.
As far as I can see, and I'm
no expert, but there's not enough voter fraud
to really make mail in voting an issue.
That's kind of how I see it, congresswoman
congresswoman. Well, all you have to do is
shout. It's filled with fraud,
filled with fraud, filled with fraud. And you
say it enough times. Enough times. And it's
true. Yeah.
Well, there's been a decades long
effort to undermine
Voting. Voter integrity. Right? Like and and people
voting,
but
people's belief in the system.
And so a lot of misinformation
has gone out.
The amount of voter fraud is so small,
and you have to
understand that,
you know, when someone
signs something,
right,
to say, yes. I am a I am
a citizen, and I am eligible to vote.
By doing that,
they're certifying,
right, under penalty of a felony
prosecution
that they are eligible to vote. And I
think voter fraud should be prosecuted to the
fullest extent of the law. For sure. But
it is very, very small.
And I'll tell you what about, you know,
vote by mail.
That was promoted by Norma Polis, who was
a Republican secretary of state. Our last Republican
secretary of state, Dennis Richardson,
nobody would call him
liberal or even moderate, but he was very
clear. Our vote by mail system is safe.
Now let let me tell you what would
happen,
if, you know, they canceled vote by mail,
especially in our rural communities. To their union.
Right? Yeah. That would mean people would have
to take off a day from work
that
they would have to drive
to a polling place $5 a gallon.
Get $5 a gallon,
in a rural and frontier counties, that is
a that that's a major problem.
And then,
yeah, it it basically we would have to
set up an entirely new system before our
November election.
And so vote by mail
with our voters pamphlet, where everybody gets to
put 325
words in, I I bring in voters' pamphlets
to show my colleagues, and they're like, every
voter gets this. I'm like, absolutely.
I mean, that evens out
access to to voter information.
But vote by mail is the safest
way to vote, and you have a paper
copy.
Senator Wyden and I,
have sponsored a national vote by mail bill,
so that every state could do this because
it is the safest, most secure means to
vote.
But what we have now is what the
Republicans call the save act. I call the
steal act because it queuing our act. You're
balancing
on that. Yes. You know, places like Florida,
you you
you have to stand online for three hours
to vote. That's,
it's unbelievable.
Well,
so
there has been
data showing that 82%
of Americans,
you know,
support the say back. No.
82%
of Americans
support
some kind of
voter identification
that in theory.
But when you go down and and and
in the same hole, you go down and
say,
you know, would you if you're a married
woman, do do you have a passport? I
I you have to bring your birth certificate
and your marriage certificate.
And you have to go to and, again,
this affects our rural and frontier counties
the most. You would have to go to
your elections office, right, driving at $5.06,
$7 a gallon
to show them
all of this these IDs or get a
passport for a $180
that will take I don't know how long
because the Doge Bros
fired a whole bunch of people that processed
that. I mean, this will stop people from
voting, and I I don't think
people understand how much it will affect
our rural and frontier counties even more so
than our our urban areas. Like, most people
in this district do not have a passport.
I have my Real ID license.
It's not valid, and people don't understand that
that your license
is not something that's valid, that, you know,
it takes time to go back and get,
you know, your
your birth certificate, your marriage certificate because I
changed my name when I got married. So
there's 900,000
Oregon women who got married
and changed their last name that would be
kicked off the voter rolls.
You know, there's there are elderly Americans without
birth certificates. There was, I think two years
ago in Ohio,
there was, a nun. She was, you know,
almost 90 years old. She had never birth
certificate.
She was not allowed to vote, and she
she's been voting. She was a nun, for
goodness sake, from that gelee who lived in
the convent. Right. This is crazy.
So Oregon's elections are secure. We also have
seen an attack on the US postal service.
I have talked to postal workers, and they
are being told
that they can't work overtime
even those ops have been you know, jobs
have been cut. They're very understaffed,
and that they should just leave the mail
there. You know, postmarking
things,
the delaying the postmark is specifically
focused on attacking vote by mail so that
your postmark is later. And when the postmark
is later, that means your vote doesn't get
counted. So this administration
is specifically
slowing down our mail
to affect
vote by mail. How
like, that's just
that's just the eagle. It's a point of
view. A constitutional
right. It is a constitutional
right to make our voices heard. But as
we have seen in Georgia, we have seen
in Texas,
we where more Democrats came out to vote
than Republicans,
we are seeing everywhere that
voters are not voting for they're not happy
with the Trump administration.
So instead of owning that
and adding some checks and balances and free
and fair elections
and earning Americans votes,
what they wanna do is stop us from
being able to vote. This is a constitutional
right that we should fight for. Boy, howdy.
You know, we have a text. I wanna
get this text in that we just got,
and thank you for the text.
It it says,
it is unfortunate that the battle over the
budget has simplistically
been branded branded
as either funding ICE or the TSA employees.
The anti administration
stance could be stressing
instead that we are fighting to eliminate the
uncertainty and fear that all Americans are living
with. And this text says,
they know a person here in Brookings who
looks like he could be of the wrong
ancestry,
and so he carries his passport with him
at all times. I don't have a passport
either. In case ice should appear in our
streets,
the fear is everywhere. I know a woman
that does I know a woman that does
the same thing. Well, it's not an exaggerate
exaggeration.
So thank you for that text.
Yeah. I and that's exactly right. We are
seeing Americans
that happen to look like immigrants.
Right? American citizens that are being picked up
and sometimes
detained,
right, just because
they look
like they might be an immigrant. So they
have brown skin. We're seeing immigrants who are
here legally,
right, Who are here legally, whether they're DACA
recipients
or they're refugees. They have legal status. They
are following the rules. They are being detained.
We have an a man who comes from
Ethiopia.
They're literally he is a deacon in in
in his church.
He,
worked and earned his his,
bachelor's, master's, and PhD
here in The United States. We have four
children and a white who are American citizen.
And they are not only not they're not
only planning to support him
over her paperwork error,
but
because they can't get paperwork from Ethiopia,
they're going to turn into a third country
where he doesn't take the language, where he
doesn't have family.
Great. And and I mean, I went to
see him, and he just cried. He's like,
you know, my wife just got diagnosed with
a brain tumor. I want to be with
my children and my family. And can you
please? That's not what people voted for. You
want to support people who committed funds? Absolutely.
Oh, and pray not
not what's happening, sir.
If this guy was an Africanist,
escaping,
what Trump calls South Africa. Gang violence, then
he would be welcomed with open arms. But
if he had come from or in the
Central American countries claiming the same thing,
he would not be.
The Afrikanist
My
yeah. My, my husband's British. Right? My husband
became a citizen in 2016.
I wanna be clear. He had his green
card before he met me, but,
you know, he
he has never been stopped.
No one ever
asked him if he is here legally. No
one you know, we don't we don't care,
but it because he's a big white guy.
Right. What's about race and racism?
You know? Well, yeah. But I think that
I'll just say it in my opinion. Racism,
misogyny,
and a
bunch of other stuff,
that I can't think of is is part
of this administration.
How you know, when when he's taking all
the references to to slavery and,
black problems out of the some Smithsonian,
changing names of forts back to to
civil war
generals,
just doing incredible amount of racist things. I
just read this morning that there
there's, national parks around the country where they're
taking down a lot of the signs
that give our country a a bad name.
So I'm on the,
transportation and infrastructure and natural resources committees on
the ranking so highest ranking Democrat on the
water, wildlife, and fisheries subcommittee because,
you know, with 250 miles of ocean and
all the rivers, stream,
you know,
lump like like forests and other natural resource
issues, these are two
really important committees for the district. But we
had a committee hearing, and I I don't
normally lose my temper.
But a colleague of mine from North Carolina
said after Jim Clyburn spoke and said, how
can you erase
my history?
Erase the fact that slavery ever happened.
Erase,
you know, what the Tuskegee Airmen did. Erase
all of the things that happened. You know,
the trail of tears. This is part of
our history. And my colleague, republican from North
Carolina, said,
you know, democrat I don't know. He started
talking about Joe Biden in an auto pen.
That was below a creative boot. And and
and then,
he said, you know, democrat
want to just
show how bad,
America is and only focus on the negative,
and we need to show how far we've
come. So I saw, like, popped in and
said and this was all about going to
our federal parks and, oh, and the Smithsonian
and and and our national parks and erasing
anything
that is negative and that does not fit
into,
a history that is basically
white supremist.
And,
I said, how the hell
can we tell
how far we have come
if
we don't know where we've been?
I mean, we can tell how far we've
come because we look at history. What
happened in Nazi Germany. We look at what
happened on the trail of tears. We look
at what happened
with, you know, the civil rights marches so
that, you know Not not if we get
to rewrite all the tensions. Could vote. We're
right. That's it. And that's the issue.
Why are we afraid?
Why why would they be afraid
to talk about our history,
you know, as as Winston Churchill would say,
worth and all. Worth and all. That's what
your tree should be. Yeah. And and and
they don't seem to understand. We're not
we've done a lot of good stuff this
country, a lot of good stuff, a lot
of great people, but,
I can not say it any better than
worse at all. We all know what's happened,
and we need to
know that history to hopefully not live through
it again, but we are living through some
of that stuff again. Yeah. I I I
think about the the the saying after the
holocaust, never again. That was battered battered well,
not battered around, but
it it has happened again. Stuff like that
has happened. If you don't understand the history,
you don't understand what's going on now. Thank
you. A perfect example is looking at at
Hitler's,
march across Europe,
and going into Czechoslovakia.
I'm just gonna take this little bit here
that's actually,
German anyway, and and then he just walked
kept on walking. Yeah. And that is that
is absolutely what would happen in,
Ukraine.
Yeah. That's yeah. Just gonna read. Can I
add to the representative's point? Sorry. Before I
I while I cut you off, representative.
But I think it's really important Go ahead.
Important for us to be able to measure
our progress. We can't pick up the measuring
stick.
As we walk past, if we're gonna measure
our progress, there has to be some point
of reference, and we're trying we're removing
the attempt is to remove the points of
reference, so there's no way to measure our
progress. I think it's really important that we
lay that stick down and keep track of
where those even the negative points are. So
thanks for being a run. Yes. Bigly.
I'm saying that.
And congresswoman
oh, I'm sorry. You go ahead. You go
ahead. No. No. No. No. Go ahead. I
was just gonna back to where you we
were talking about Trump in claiming the democrats
are the enemy, and that's where they're at.
This is a little snippet of where I
think
I I believe he's a truly evil man,
my opinion only. His comment
about
Robert Mueller passing.
Now granted they weren't the best of friends,
but I thought that was pretty hideous. I
didn't hear what he say. Oh, he said
he was glad he's dead. Oh, I knew
that part of it. Glad he's dead. Now
I I I just thought that was quite
the horrific comment to make, but it didn't
surprise me coming from him.
That's what I'll say about that. And and
if, you know, if you look at the
difference between
the outrage over people who said negative,
negative things about Charlie Kirk. Right? Well, boy,
you go. The
president
the president
of The United States is supposed to be
someone who
holds himself above reproach, who is supposed to
be someone
that the people of this country
look up to,
and yet he is being I I mean,
he just says terrible things about people, and
we should expect more. Now I'll go back
to history.
I mean,
history
knowing history is important.
For instance,
in Iran,
you know,
certainly, you have the Ayatollah Khomeini.
Right? Yeah. They overthrew the Shah of Iran.
The Shah of Iran
was put in by The United States because
the previous
leader of Iran,
Mohammed
Mosaddegh,
he wanted to was democratically
elected, very popular,
and he wanted to audit DP,
right, for their oil company. Yes. British Petroleum
with the oil company, again, wars for oil,
put in the Shah of Iran who was
also a brutal dictator.
Right? He just wasn't a religious fanatic.
So we did that.
Did not go well. The Ayatollah came in.
They support Hezbollah.
They,
you know, they are a danger to the
entire
Middle East. They,
like, they are a pariah nation,
but we have to understand how we got
there
so that we don't end up doing it
again. And that's why we need to have
conversations
in congress
before going into war so that we get
to have transparency
and talk about what this history is and
and relay
the vast majority of my constituents' will, Democrats
and Republicans, is that we don't end up
in another foreign war for oil that puts
Americans in danger.
Which is where we are right now. And
I'm glad you brought that point up, representative.
I think a lot of us forget about
the fact that we're a representative democracy.
You represent all of us that live in
Oregon Congressional District 4. You are our voice
in that house.
So if you don't get to speak about
it because president Trump has just skipped congress,
how do we ever have our voice heard
by our president about how we feel about
this war because you're representing us there?
There. And I'll let you have And and
and more and and there's there's
those points, Brett, you are exactly,
exactly
correct.
And the larger point is there are presidents
that have tried to exceed their executive power.
Right?
That but,
like, Lyndon Johnson
wanted to vote.
You know? He knew how to use his
power both as president and,
you know, in the senate. I understand.
But you had you had a judiciary
and,
a congress
that balanced him out.
You had Richard Nixon
where you had Republicans
that actually came out and said, we need
to hold our president accountable, and Democrats and
Republicans
came together over Watergate,
you know, to open
it over something he did wrong. Nixon Nixon
was not a cult leader, though. That's what
we have now, people who are back in
Well, and regardless of what he does. But
it
right. And it's our job
as members of Congress, and I tell this
to my Republican colleagues,
Mike Johnson
does not does not want to buck the
president. He is loyal to the president
as opposed to being loyal to the American
people. If you watched him during watched him
during the,
president's speech to to the joint members, I
can't think of the name right now, And
Mike Johnson sitting there with that silly grin
on his face, he looked like Alfred e
Newman, and he always does when he's standing
next to the president. Just the And and
the and the joke that I don't think
a lot of people got is is,
Trump bought all these shoes for all his
his cabinet members,
and the shoes that he bought for Marco
Rubio were way too big for Marco Rubio.
I think it was
trying to a a lot of people thought
he just got the size wrong. No. He's
trying to tell Marco you're filling some pretty
big Well, Marco is filling shoes that are
way too big. Yes. He is.
I think little Marco was probably a good
description.
Well,
There's I mean, you know Yeah. We again,
what we need is we need
to have a healthy democracy.
We need to get money out of politics,
right, and overturn Citizens United.
We need to,
stop the over partisan gerrymandering
and and have the Supreme Court do their
job. I'm really concerned,
that they are gonna overturn the voting rights
act right in,
article two, and that will mean
that there could be much more severe gerrymandering
of, like, 19 more speeds, which is not
healthy for our democracy.
We need to, I think, expand vote by
mail
so that people
can have time to vote and have their
voice inferred.
And I also think at some point, I
would like to see us have, you know,
more than two parties. But right now, we
have a president and a speaker of the
house and an administration
that wants to just have one party having
a voice. And that one party isn't working
on behalf of the vast majority of Americans,
and we have to fight back and make
sure in 2026,
our voices are heard and we have free
and fair elections.
Very true. Now we are running down. We
got about little over three minutes. I have
to one I'm gonna throw out, hopefully, some
hope.
Congresswoman, what do you think hope for the
midterms? I get a little nervous when I
hear a lot of people saying, oh, it's
gonna be an easy blue wave. I don't
know about that, but,
we are hoping for some midterm,
luck. What would you call it? I don't
know. We all call it work. That is
not luck. It's all hard work. Will, For
sure. We all thought, well, I'm all ahead
of work on the park. Yeah. Let's hear
from the representative on that. So
first of all, what we have seen in
every other
in all of the elections across the country
is
that, you know,
that that elections
are are swinging by double digits. Again, Texas
is a good example. Georgia is an excellent
example. So those are Jersey. Right? So and
and Virginia. So those are good signs.
We have to that we have to make
sure that we fight voter suppression
and
hold firm on not letting
the senate pass the steal act, the stealing
our vote act.
And then and then
Democrats need to give people something to vote
for.
It is not enough to just say Trump
is bad. We have to give them something
to vote for and work harder and actually
have messaging that speaks to working class people
and ordinary people. We, you know, we can't
just show up to people that can't pay
for their rent or their gas or their
food with a 16 page paper
on poverty. That's not gonna fly.
We have to do better
at,
at meeting people where they are and fighting
for
some economic prosperity and balance in,
you know, in people's lives. Well, again, we're
all hoping and I don't know about praying.
I don't pray, but hoping for the mid
for the midterm
swing. I don't know about you. I'm working
for it. And,
again, congresswoman
Val Hoyle, really appreciate you doing the show.
Sorry for the initial. We had some tech
issues that I certainly cannot repair, but it
worked out. Got a little late start. But,
again, like to really thank you for being
on our show, and I hope to have
you on. Again, I've got pages of notes
I had didn't get to and maybe the
next time.
And we really appreciate you being on very
much.
I I appreciate what you're doing. Local media
matters, and I wanna, you know, call out,
Brett Cecil for the work that he's done
to organize
in Curry County. He is he is working
nonstop. And, Brett, we appreciate you.
And and we do. Hi as well. Alright.
We're just about done. I want a quick
shout out to our friends, John and Janine,
who showed up here,
before we started the show. They walked in
off the street, saw the radio station, came
in and bought a t shirt. Yay. Thank
you, John and Janine.
Alright. Thank you all for listening. KCIW
one hundred point seven FM
here in beautiful Brookings, Oregon.