Lulu Garcia Navarro

All right, Senator Smith, I'm going to turn to you because you've said you're stepping down to spend more time with family and that it has nothing to do with politics.

A lot of politicians who leave say that.

That is the classic line.

Yeah, whenever you leave a job, it can be for personal reasons, but there's always professional reasons.

I noted that Representative Jared Golden, who is also stepping down from the House, he talked about political nastiness and the political violence that we're seeing for reasons that he's not seeking reelection.

So I'm just wondering, are those issues weighing on you, too?

You know, it's funny listening to you all.

And it's one of the reasons I wanted to bring you here, because you have the long view of how we got here.

And clearly, all of this predates the era that we're in now.

But this era has supercharged all of what you're discussing.

And you've touched on one of the main critiques of the Senate right now.

And it's something I heard when I sat with Senator Lisa Murkowski, which is that the

Regardless of the partisan nature, it's just not doing its job.

It's not acting as a check on the executive.

And I would love for you to just discuss, do you think that this is an enduring shift away from congressional power?

The president, as I was saying before— And we're seeing the Supreme Court ruling on this and sort of making it law, essentially.

Yeah.

I want to come back to this.

But before we do, I am curious about—

the problem of party leadership.