Lulu Garcia Navarro

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.

For example, Senator Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, isn't popular with the Democratic base.

And Senator Smith, you are part of a so-called fight club that is looking to get new leadership.

Can you explain what you think is needed?

And is the leadership of the respective parties part of what's going on here?

Which is interesting because when I spoke to Senator Schumer, he touted that as his greatest sort of strength, that he really can choose candidates that win.

And so, you know, you get a Governor Janet Mills running in Maine at 77 against Graham Plattner, who's 41 and more progressive.