Here & Now

US Rep. Gwen Moore on Redistricting, War in Iran and the IRS

Frederica Freyberg:
As Wisconsin and the nation gear toward midterm elections, what are voters to make of what goes on in Washington and how it affects them? Or are they tuning out because of the daily crush of headlines? There’s the ongoing war in Iran, prices at the pump and in the spring planting fields. There is the nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund that the president could give to people who stormed the Capitol on January 6. There is the significant narrowing of the Voting Rights Act by conservatives on the U.S. Supreme Court. And the list goes on and on. We regularly like to touch base with our congressional delegation for their news and views. Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve invited Wisconsin Republicans to share their viewpoints without success. Tonight, we turn to 4th District Democratic Congresswoman Gwen Moore. And thanks very much for being here.

Gwen Moore:
Always great to be with you, Frederica.

Frederica Freyberg:
So of all the news that is swirling, what stands out for you as you represent your constituents?

Gwen Moore:
Well, the thing that is obviously standing out to me is just the unending crush, economic crush that people are facing. Combination of the tariffs, the war on Iran, the erratic, mercurial functioning of this president, him freezing funds for essential services like daycare and childcare. These are things that are disrupting everyday Wisconsinites’ lives. The crisis with health care and the doubling sometimes of people’s health care premiums, or the loss of their health care premiums. You know, just the aggregation of all these things is placing a huge economic crush on families. And so that’s the thing that sort of stands out to me as the background for all of the very particular things that are happening.

Frederica Freyberg:
As to the ruling related to the Voting Rights Act, that a majority-minority district was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander, what does that mean to minority representation?

Gwen Moore:
It means an awful lot. You know, the 13th, 14th, 15th Amendment, the 14th Amendment of the Constitution in particular, really guaranteed African Americans equality. And we have seen throughout history, this is not new, people. We have seen throughout history sort of lost cause. You know, Democrats and Republicans grieving over African Americans having access to the ballot, access to power and their willingness to sort of interfere with that power by any means necessary. You know, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan came as a result of African Americans being enfranchised. And so this is absolutely no — this is a backlash for the power that African Americans have achieved. And this could have an impact on a minimum of 19 sort of voting rights districts in the country.

Frederica Freyberg:
Turning to the war in Iran, the U.S. and Iran are reportedly negotiating. Are members of Congress on both sides tiring of this ongoing war and wanting a say?

Gwen Moore:
Well, I’ll tell you. We have been putting up war powers resolutions repeatedly, privileged resolutions, which by the way, the Republicans did not honor yesterday. We had yet another war powers resolution ripen, and they didn’t put it before us because they, in the House, did not have the votes to defeat it. We’ve seen more and more and more Republicans join us in putting forth this War Powers Resolution. To this day, we don’t have a concrete reason that we went in there.

Frederica Freyberg:
On another matter, in your mind, should Congress have a say over the nearly $1.8 billion fund that resulted out of a settlement President Trump made with the IRS that would pay people the administration believes were unfairly prosecuted?

Gwen Moore:
It’s all very ludicrous. I bet Frederica you can’t even believe that you’re asking this question. This $1.8 billion slush fund for his cronies and his buddy and, you know, also a part of that other part of that agreement is that Donald Trump and his sons should never, ever, ever be audited again. That is absolutely the pinnacle of corruption. But as a member of the Ways and Means Committee, we did offer in our markup yesterday, which was on corruption of TANF, for example, corruption. We did offer amendments to try to get rid of this $1.8 billion fund.

Frederica Freyberg:
Are your voters overwhelmed by the crush of everything that happens out of Washington on a daily basis?

Gwen Moore:
You want to know something that I’ll say the whole political strategy of the Trump administration has been to flood the zone, to just keep us running like a rat on a treadmill so that we won’t be able to respond to their chaotic, mercurial governance strategy. We are hoping to get back into power to really resolve some of the major threats to our community of interest. That is the ability for people to vote, the ability of people to be able to go to a doctor, the ability of people to be able to afford, you know, both the bacon and the eggs and to be able to live a productive life, to be able to put gas in their cars so they can get to work. This is the American dream just to have normalcy. And so this is what we’re offering voters in the future. And that is we’re keeping our eye on the prize.

Frederica Freyberg:
Congresswoman Gwen Moore, we leave it there. Thank you so much.

Gwen Moore:
Thank you.