How To Make Centrism Sexy (feat. Sen. Cortez Masto)

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Welcome to Raging Moderates.

I'm Jessica Tarla, and today I'm thrilled to be joined by Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez-Masto.

She's the honorary chair of the Mod Squad.

That's a group of moderate senators who are all about modernizing how they connect with voters, standing up to political extremes, and actually getting things done for the American people.

She's been really outspoken lately about the Doge-led cuts hitting critical programs in Nevada, like funding for immunizations and mental health services.

She also helped lead a group of senators who wrote to Health Secretary RFK Jr., raising alarms about cuts to Head Start programs.

And she's one of the key voices pushing to recenter the Democratic Party around common sense and real human connection, near and dear to mine and Scott's heart.

Welcome to the program, Senator.

Oh, Jessica, it's great to journey.

Okay, now, I don't want to offend you because this is your show.

Okay.

Let me just say one thing.

It's Nevada.

Oh, my God.

I'm so sorry.

My Nevadans, if I didn't correct you and they were listening to this, they would turn it

when I got home.

I would never be able to go back.

Your next town hall would be a hell state because you didn't tell me.

Okay, so Nevada.

Nevada, that's it.

Nevada.

Okay.

I'm going to try really hard.

This New Yorker is probably going to struggle.

Okay.

I wanted to start with kind of big picture.

This was the hundred days, marked 100 days of the Trump 2.0 presidency this week.

What are your top line thoughts on how it's been going and also how it's been affecting people in your state?

Well, I can tell you, it's the economy.

It's just, it absolutely is about the economy for people in Nevada.

I was home just recently.

I'm back in D.C.

working now, but I was home for two weeks.

I was in the northern part of the state, the center of the part of the state, our rural communities.

It's about the economy.

And people feeling squeezed right now with high prices still, household costs still high, groceries prices still high, including our small businesses who are struggling, right?

I had an opportunity to sit down and have several roundtables with some of our small businesses and visit with them.

And they're afraid that they won't be able to keep their doors open much longer.

It is a challenge right now.

And it's unfortunate because this is a president who said on day one, if you remember, I think he was in Ozman, Montana, when he said, We're going to lower costs.

On day one, I'm going to lower costs for families across this country.

And that is not what's happening right now.

Because of his policies, we're just seeing this economy really, it's almost in free fall.

And American families and hardworking families and small businesses are suffering because of it right now.

It didn't seem to me like there was this opportunity he could have just taken to basically use the bones of the Biden economy and ride that and make some little changes.

You want to go harder on China with tariffs, understandable.

Biden even, you know, three times, threefold increased what Trump had done there.

But it really seems like tariffs and immigration to some degree, which I want to get to, has kind of created this free fall that you're speaking about.

And the AG in Nevada, is it, did I do it right?

That's right.

Yeah.

Ish.

Okay.

Sued the administration over the tariffs.

Can you talk a little bit about that?

some more, I guess, small business-wise, but just how the people are feeling about the tariffs in particular.

Yeah, so let me let me jump back to this because you bring up a great point.

Going into this year, the economy was growing, right?

We were expanding.

Our economy was expanding.

We had good unemployment numbers were down.

People weren't, didn't feel great.

I mean, we still had to address the household costs and other things, but we focused on some, lowering some health care costs, and the economy looked good.

And you're right.

This administration, all they had to do and take the bones and continue moving forward and be targeted about how they wanted to address shrinking the government, how they wanted to address maybe addressing some of the waste, fraud, and abuse that is out there, and how they want to impose tariffs.

There's a great way to target tariffs.

And let me just give you a perfect example.

In Nevada, if you come to Nevada, and I've worked really hard to do this, to make sure that we can lean into this clean energy economy, because it has created jobs in my state, union jobs, which are fantastic.

We've leaned into solar, wind, and geothermal.

One thing we have leaned into, though, was lithium-ion batteries, manufacturing, recycling, and then storage around batteries.

All of that research, all of the dollars that came into my state when the federal government and the work that we have done from Inflation Reduction Act to Chips and Science Act, all of those laws that we passed, including the bipartisan infrastructure, brought that money in to move us in a direction so we are leading in this country around that technology.

It is great and we should continue.

And all he had to do is step in and continue to move in that direction.

But already, because he doesn't like electric vehicles, he is already cutting the funding to some of even the battery manufacturing and the battery storage.

And that is the problem, is why aren't we targeted?

Because I know in the last administration, working with them, we targeted China so that they couldn't.

take advantage of the battery manufacturing in their country and we could bring it back here to the United States.

That's where the tariffs worked.

We want to protect our jobs here.

We want to bring manufacturing in this space and the new technology.

That's how you use targeted tariffs.

When you do blanket tariffs, too many people suffer, including our small businesses that are suffering right now.

And at the end of the day, you know this, a tariff is a tax ultimately on consumers.

And as I was talking to my small businesses, because they're seeing the higher costs, they have to make a choice.

Can they keep their doors open or do they pass that cost?

on to the American consumer.

And too many are going to be passing the cost off, quite honestly, honestly, because they want to stay open.

They are providing an essential service and employing people in the community.

It's this cycle of everybody's getting wrapped up into this chaos and uncertainty that this administration is imposing based on the policies that they're implementing right now.

And it's just having a devastating impact in Nevada.

I don't want to get too much into the psychology of it, but it is interesting to me.

And each administration is guilty of this, that they come in and it's like they have such an aversion to the last guy that they just try to undo everything.

And I thought that that was really the case with border policy under the Biden administration.

And then we had a surge going up to 250,000 people crossing on a monthly basis, which got toned down with the last year he was in office.

But that was obviously about an axe to grind with Trump.

And it feels as though Trump can't live with the fact that Biden did a pretty good job managing economy, especially through a global health pandemic like that.

And do you see any rationale for what he's doing besides partisan spite?

And do you feel like there's there's any chance that this is going to stop before we have total destruction?

Well, let's talk about its partisan spite and retribution.

Don't forget, there's a lot of retribution in this.

That to me, and

as a former attorney general of my state who respects the rule of law and that law should be nonpartisan and not be part of a political retribution, he is doing that now.

So yes, there is a concern about how he is and his policies in total are going to have a negative impact long term, not just around the economy, around our rule of the law, around the essential services that really at the end of the day, people are relying on.

Here's the fascinating thing, Jessica.

I know in my state, most people don't even know what the federal government does for them.

They really don't, until there is a service or essential program that they rely on or benefit that is taken away.

Otherwise, they really don't understand how complex it is.

Now, I'll be the first to tell you, is there too much bureaucracy?

Is there too much regulation?

Is there a way that we can streamline it?

Absolutely.

We have to.

And I've seen it.

That's my fight at the federal government is to get rid of some of the bureaucracy and streamline.

But there's a smart and targeted way to do it in a thoughtful way that doesn't burn down the entire House and break everything, right?

And so that's what we have right now.

And because that is happening, I am seeing in my state, listen,

Susan Collins and I, when I first got to the Senate, fought for federal dollars for Alzheimer's research.

And then together, we passed legislation called the Bold Act to continue to incorporate and identify centers for excellence around that research and support for caregivers for Alzheimer's.

Under this administration, they just eliminated the entire program and all the funding within.

I mean, it just does not make sense.

And there's too many people that are suffering because of it.

And that's why

what is happening here,

I see and feel in my state.

And I'm a swing state.

People in my state voted for Donald Trump, but they're feeling, they're hurting right now.

And they just want people to come together in a common sense way and actually solve problems that they're dealing with and not add to it.

Yeah, that brings me to my next question and something that has been a hot topic for Democrats these first three and a half months.

Like, how do you respond?

What is...

What does that look like?

Because you have AOC and Bernie that are out on tour, right, and getting 30,000 people to come out in Idaho.

You have the Chris Murphys of the world, Corey Booker 25 Hours on the floor, Jakeen Jeffries and Corey Booker on the steps of the Capitol building.

What, as someone who does represent folks that voted for you and for Jackie Rosen and for Donald Trump, what do you see as the best approach for us to be able to fight back in a constructive way?

Yeah, I can say if you were just talking about the Democrats, I think everybody, the Democrat, they're so, we're so diverse in the sense that we have

the left side of the party and the moderates.

I'm a moderate and the moderates, right?

And there's going to be enough room for all of us to reach out to our voters, to reach out to constituents in my state, my swing voters, everybody that is suffering to talk to them.

And it may look differently, right?

For me, it is going home and actually meeting people where they live.

and talking to them or going on local podcasts.

I just, we have a local Filipino podcast that I just was on because we have a large Filipino population in Nevada and talking to that community.

You just, for me, it's going and showing up, including in our rural communities, where I know they voted for Donald Trump, but engaging.

And it's not just showing up at the time of election.

It's always showing up and then following up.

And then working with them on solutions and solving problems that they deal with and bringing them into the conversation.

So my Nevadans constituents, I pull them in conversations all the time.

I can, perfect example.

Chuck Grassley and I are working on a piece of legislation to address xylosine that is being cut with fentanyl right now and to give law enforcement the tools they need to hold those traffickers accountable.

Xylosine is an important drug for our veterinarians.

First people that I went to in my state are veterinarians.

Cattlemen's Association, our farmers and ranchers, they're in our rural part of the state to say, hey, how do we pass legislation that doesn't impede your access to this drug?

But at the same time, we can hold those who are utilizing it in an illicit manner, hold them accountable.

That's how we do it.

You get out and you talk to everyone.

And I think that's going to be important for many of my colleagues to understand.

Listen,

we don't have a president right now.

We don't have a leader of the Democratic Party.

And we didn't in 2018.

Remember, we didn't in 2018 and we still won.

Right?

So the point is we are we all have a role to play.

There is so much happening, Jessica, right now.

In the first hundred days, oh my gosh, this has been overload by this administration.

Like years.

Yeah, my gosh.

And I tell people, it's only been 100 days.

And it's just been overload by this administration because they had a plan going in.

And so there's a lot for us to do, but we have to be doing it.

We have to use our oversight role in Congress.

We have to push back where we can in that oversight role and shine a light.

for the American public on what is going on because most people don't know, particularly an administration that would prefer to do this all in the dark of night, right?

When he fired all of the inspector generals, it was in the middle of the night.

Nobody knew.

So, part of this is: no, we got to make sure the public knows what's happening, and then we got to show up and talk to them.

You know, it just, I can't stress that enough.

I know, as a swing state senator, that they expect that kind of conversation and that understanding.

And I think that's where, as Democrats, there's enough room for all of us, and we all have got to figure out how we engage and shine a light on what is happening.

And then, finally, let me just say this, Jessica.

We are all going to be united around two things.

Fighting for our hardworking Americans, but at the same time, pushing back against this administration that wants too much power and is engaging in government, federal government overreach.

I think there's a commonality for Democrats in that sense, and we've got to stay focused on what we're trying to achieve.

Do you think one is more important than the other?

The fighting for working class people?

Yeah, I think they're just both important, what's happening right now.

I don't think you can.

That's the rub here.

I think from many of my constituents, there are issues that they care about more than others, and I understand it.

Some are more emotional about the state of our democracy.

Some are more emotional about the loss of dollars to help mental health.

This is my focus as well.

So

everybody's going to be emotional and fighting on an issue that matters to them.

But as United States senators representing the full state, we have to be fighting on all levels of it.

And that's why our oversight is so important.

And that's why what's happening in the courts, people don't even understand what's happening in the courts is just as important.

People have no idea until I tell them.

Right now, there are over 200 court cases that have been filed against this administration, including, like you said, from my state, from my attorney general, General Ford.

Yeah, we had Mark Elias on the podcast and Democracy Docket is conducting a lot of those lawsuits.

And

Mark was making the case that it's really going to be the rule of law out of the courts that end up saving us and all of this.

So you just got to keep filing, especially because they are, to your point, doing so much under the cover of darkness, like Mike Johnson putting poison pills in this reconciliation bill that says that Trump can't be curbed in terms of his power to tariff, even though that's foundational to America.

Like Boston Tea Party was about this problem.

That's right.

And that's why, you know, when I talk to voters voters and talk to them about what they care about, say, yes, we're fighting there and we're also fighting here.

There's a lot at stake.

But let me just say, at the end of the day, yes, it does come down to the economy and making sure people's lives are better.

Fighting for those families and small businesses, but also standing up for the rule of law.

That's just as important.

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You seem very calm, so it's actually perfect that you're the new chair of the mod squad.

Can you tell us about this coalition and some of the key members and what kind of impact you hope to have in 2026, 2028, and beyond?

Yeah, thank you for asking.

So the mod squad is an

I was like, this is, we could brand the crap out of this.

Like, it's going to be great.

I hate to say this, but in my age,

it reminds me of the old show, Mod Squad.

Every time I bring it up, if you're around my age, everybody starts talking about the actors and actresses from the old show.

And I said, no, no, it's not that.

It's a little something different.

But here's what really the focus is for moderate Democrats like me from swing states.

The goal here is to really focus on how we elevate the voices of those constituents, of those Americans who are there who are usually not heard because, you know, I just say in mainstream media, usually you hear from the far left and the far right, but you don't hear a lot about the moderates because the moderates are just, we're common sense.

Let's solve the problems.

Let's get it done.

Let's talk to our constituents.

Let's move forward.

Now the goal is with the support of the Mod Squad, which is an organization that encourages really moderate senators to work together to amplify the voices of not just the senators, but the people that we represent back home to convene us around policy issues that are common sense that we can work across the aisle with some of our Republican colleagues to solve problems.

That's really what it's about.

And that's why I am pleased to kind of step up as the honorary chair.

But there's about 20 of my colleagues that are part of this, including Ruben Gallego and Alyssa Slotkin.

We've got Gene Shaheen, Mark Warner.

So, if you would think about the Senate and the moderates that are in the Senate, pretty much those senators, those are the ones that are really the voices we're trying to amplify more of.

How do you make political centrism

sexy?

Like, I understand there's the winning component, and I find winning sexy.

Like, I much prefer it when we're in charge, but I've always felt as a moderate person that that is a major challenge, you know, like

the results, right?

We filled that pothole.

That's exciting and that makes your life better, but it doesn't lead newscasts like you were saying.

And the way the cable news ecosphere works, and I know this working in conservative media, they're playing clips of AOC, right?

They are not playing clips of you being totally normal, right?

Talking about your connection with the Trump voters in your state and making sure that you're satisfying what they wanted from him and also what they wanted from you.

So how do you think Democrats can attack that issue?

Yeah, it's a great question.

And one of the if we want an indicator, right?

Like you said, winning is an indicator.

Well, if you look back at the last election, actually moderates.

We We outperformed.

We outperformed.

And if you look at the seven swing states of the senators and governors out of the 21 positions, we won, what, 15 of them.

So moderates outperform in these states.

And that's a winning indicator.

But the other side to that is just in general, people need to understand.

I think there's more moderates.

across the country that are looking for this common sense.

Let's just work together.

Let's find solutions.

Let's make sure everybody else's lives better.

How do we work towards that goal?

And let me just give you a perfect example.

I was coming home.

I was in the Reno airport and I was actually leaving Reno and heading to Las Vegas.

And a constituent saw me said, hey, Senator, Senator, is that you?

And I said, yeah, how are you?

And he said, I just want you to know I'm one of your constituents and I support you, but I'm also one of your constituents that voted for Donald Trump, but also voted for Jackie Rosen.

And that is not unusual in swing states like ours, right?

And so those are the type of, and that's what he said.

I just want everybody to work together.

I just want the common sense, solve problems.

How do we move forward?

And that's, that really is where I'm coming from and a lot of our moderates.

And that's why our voices need to be heard because it's a whole constituency that is out there that just wants people to solve problems at the end of the day.

But it does feel like this house on fire moment, right?

And I've heard that criticism of

plain spoken moderate representatives where you say, you are not channeling the level of anger and anxiety that I have when my local Head Start has been closed down, my cousin lost their job, you know, we have someone taking over the public school system who has no respect for public education in this country, and I'm scared.

So what do you say to that kind of Democrat or independent or moderate Republican who would be supportive of you about moderates' ability to meet that moment.

Yeah, I would say don't confuse the ability and the willingness to work across the aisle and find common sense solutions with the idea that somehow we are not outraged and willing to fight back and push back and take action when necessary.

Listen, I am

an attorney by trade.

I was an attorney general fighting for people and their rights.

And at the end of the day, what is happening to women's rights across the country is just outrageous to me.

And the fact that that women have lesser rights now than they did, right,

50 years for the last 50 years, it's crazy.

And the fact that they are taking away essential programs that we need in healthcare and mental health.

Let me just say, I've been a senator that have fought for mental health resources in my state for the last six years.

And we brought in over a billion dollars from the federal government across the country and millions of dollars into Nevada to address mental health challenges that we were were seeing because of COVID-19 and even before of COVID-19.

And this administration has cut those programs.

I mean, it's just crazy to me.

I fought for peer counseling programs.

And so to me, that's why the outrage is absolutely there.

But part of this is I know I have to be strategic and smart about my fights and taking them on.

The big ones are key.

Mental health to me is key.

Women's rights, that's key.

Rule of law, absolutely.

I'm not going to back down.

And that's why, even in the oversight hearings, when RFK Jr.

came before me, I was taking him on.

There's no way.

This guy has no ability, no reason, no experience, and he should not be in that position.

He has no idea what he is doing, and he is harming people at the end of the day.

So now my goal is going to be to show how he continues to harm people and to show at this administration how they truly care about people or don't based on who they appoint to these positions.

And that is part of my role as a senator.

But it doesn't mean I'm not going to go back to my state and work on behalf of everyone for that greater good and solve problems and make sure I'm talking to everyone, whether they voted for me or not.

Because it is true.

I, you know, it's an old axiom, but, you know, that rising tide lifts all boats.

That's what this is about for me in my state.

I'm third generation.

I love Nevada and I will continue to fight for it.

So I pick my battles, but don't

viral during that hearing.

Take on that challenge.

Trust me.

No, I've seen you a pig performer during that confirmation hearing.

And I still, I mean, you obviously know Bill Cassidy.

I do not, but I have, personally, I have many thoughts on how we ended up with RFK Jr.

as the head of HHS.

I'm curious, you've mentioned Doge or Doge adjacent cuts a number of times since we've been speaking.

Elon Musk is on his way out the door at the end of May.

It seems special government employee runs out.

And also, Tesla is in free fall, like the economy, and I think he needs to get back to work.

What do you think the future of Doge looks like?

And do you have more faith in your ability to maybe get some of the funding for these programs reinstated once Elon isn't such a big figure in the administration?

No, I think Elon's achieved his goal here and it's going to continue.

I think we don't know the full extent of what he has done and the access to personal information of Americans that they have collated and put together in a database.

We don't know.

And we won't uncover that until after this administration, because this administration is still protecting him and they will continue to do so.

That's why it is important moving forward as we look at our oversight role in demanding answers and questioning them and what's happening and having shadow hearings and highlighting what is going on when we find out and keeping that pressure on this administration.

I think it is so important.

The administration would like nothing for,

literally, would like us as Democrats to act as Republicans are acting right now and just give them all away and just, you know, be a rubber stamp.

There's no way in hell I'm going to be a rubber stamp.

I will never be.

And that's the important part of moving forward in Congress as we challenge this administration on the bad things that they are doing.

Let me highlight something that, again, is a rage for me.

I come from a Western state.

We are having wildfires in the West.

that are lasting now longer than they traditionally did, usually a month, maybe a couple of months, a season.

They're now happening all year long.

And we need resources to fight those fires, not only for the prevention of those fires, but the suppression and remediation.

My colleagues and I, in a bipartisan way, we put almost about $8 billion into Western wildfire support.

This administration just recently has come along, has eliminated all of that funding that went to reduce the fuels for those fires, the contractors that were out there reducing the fuels for those fires, eliminated the positions for the wildfire firefighters and has put stop orders on a number of things.

So I can guarantee you, and I can tell you right now after talking to some of my folks at home, everybody's in a panic mode about the next wildfire season and how devastating it may be, not just to our rural communities, but to our urban areas as well.

That's the challenge we have: getting this administration to understand the real impacts impacts that they're having when they're making decisions in Washington, D.C., and that it is going to cost people's lives and their homes.

And it really requires that conversation to take place.

And for me, that means my Republican colleagues need to step up.

Some of them can't be a rubber stamp on this.

We need to step up.

They need to be there as well.

Pushing back in a bipartisan way is so important in this administration.

Standing up for this branch of government, as you well know, first branch of government, checks and balances are so important.

And we've got to fight for that.

We've got to fight for that moving forward in this Congress.

And it is, but just, you know, you said it, it is a challenge with some of my Republicans right now who are afraid of retribution.

Yeah.

I mean, good for Lisa Murkowski to just say it out loud.

And, you know, that certainly, as an observer of the confirmation hearings, you could see the abject terror on the faces of some of your Republican colleagues.

And they say, oh, I'm about to vote for Tulsi Gabbard because I'm scared of what's going to happen to me or or Pete Hickseth.

It's tough times, but very thankful to have you there.

And our last question, which we ask everyone, and you did just rage a little bit, but what's one thing that you are raging about and one thing that you think we should all calm down about?

Well, I will tell you the mental health piece is just so important.

I think people aren't realizing the impact that this administration is having on undoing all of the resources we put out there around mental health.

But by the way, there are gaps in services.

We need to do so much more, but he's taking away even the smaller gains that we have made around mental health services for our seniors, for our kids, for so many that need it right now.

And that to me is

just my fight moving forward because I know so many of my colleagues in the past, Debbie Stabenow was one of them.

She's since retired that fought for mental health services.

Roy Blunt, who is...

retired, fought for mental health services, and now that's all going away.

So that to me is worth the fight here here and continuing to push back.

And then in general, people just need to be calling down about the disagreements among Democrats, right?

It just, we're going to have disagreements.

That's just the nature of the party that we have that you and I have just defined.

But at the end of the day, the unity is around this administration's abuse of power and stopping it and their overreach of federal government.

And our focus should also be as a priority, how we protect and fight for those hardworking Americans at the end of the day.

That to me is very simple.

I like it.

Senator Cortez Masto from the great state of Nevada.

Nevada.

Well done.

Did I do it?

Yes.

This is bad.

You know how you can do all these very complicated things like, oh, go get a PhD, but I can't pronounce it a really important state.

It was so great to have you.

I hope you'll come back again sometime soon and we'll be watching and supporting the Mod Squad full tilt.

We love centrism over here.

Thank you.

It's great to join you.

Thank you.

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