Here & Now

Baldwin Talks Reelection Bid Into November

Frederica Freyberg:

Last week, we talked with Republican U.S. Senate candidate Leah Vukmir. This week, incumbent U.S. Senator Democrat Tammy Baldwin is here. Baldwin is a Madison native and graduate of the UW-Madison Law School. She was elected to three terms in the State Assembly before serving seven terms as the 2nd District U.S. Representative. She defeated former governor Tommy Thompson in 2012 for the U.S. Senate seat to which she now seeks re-election. Incumbent Senator Tammy Baldwin joins us now from Milwaukee and thanks very much for doing so.

Tammy Baldwin:

I’m delighted to join you. Thank you, Frederica.

Frederica Freyberg:

First I wanted to ask you what is your reaction to this week’s Marquette Law School Poll that found you two points up on your challenger Leah Vukmir among likely voters?

Tammy Baldwin:

You know, having experienced $11 million of nasty attack ads from out-of-state billionaires, this is what happens when you have this special interest money in politics. And it’s why that should be one of the things, top of our list for reforms. But I always thought this was going to be a competitive race. And I think ultimately where the voters are going to be looking in terms of a clear choice is who’s in their corner, who’s fighting for them and who’s doing the bidding of these out-of-state, powerful special interests.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, as we said, we interviewed Leah Vukmir last Friday. She called you a “backbencher.” What’s your response to that?

Tammy Baldwin:

So I’m really proud of the ways in which I champion Wisconsin issues. The things that people bring to me, we discuss. Right now one of the biggest concerns on the minds of Wisconsinites is health care. In particular, they’ve seen a fight last year where they almost saw their health care ripped away and the protections ripped away. And right now after we narrowly defeated that legislation, we’re seeing the administration try to unravel it as well as the case that’s going up to the Supreme Court ultimately, to take away protections for people with pre-existing conditions. I am leading that fight in the Senate of the United States. I know what it was like to have a childhood illness and then be labeled as a child with a pre-existing condition. I know that almost half of Wisconsinites struggle with these issues in their families. So I am fighting for them. And this is really one of the fights of our times.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, many people, including your challenger, say that they do support protecting people with pre-existing conditions and ten Republican Senators yesterday introduced a bill to do just that. So why are those protections at such risk?

Tammy Baldwin:

Well, they’re at risk for a number of reasons. First of all, the administration is no longer defending those protections in a lawsuit that was brought by Governor Walker and Attorney General Schimel and other states challenging the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act and in particular they’re attacking that provision that requires coverage for people who have been sick before. But the other way, and where you’re going to see Senate action, and I’m going to take the lead, is the administration support of something called junk plans. These are plans that are only intended to be very temporary bridge plans for people between jobs or between plans. And they don’t have to cover anything. It’s really — if you read the fine print, you’d be horrified. Certainly no pre-existing conditions. They have limits on how much they’ll pay out. We saw one the other day that won’t cover hospitalization if it happens on a Friday night or Saturday night. What’s that message? Don’t get sick on a weekend? I’m mean it’s — these are absurd and they don’t have the protections that Americans need to know that they are secure. And so we are going to try to overturn that Trump rule. And the Republicans in the Senate who are speaking out to save pre-existing condition coverage, they can join me and we can win on this.

Frederica Freyberg:

Speaking of Donald Trump, as you well know, he won Wisconsin and he endorses and has the support of Leah Vukmir. What is your position on his presidency?

Tammy Baldwin:

Well, that’s a really huge question, and you’re asking me at the end of a week in which on Tuesday we saw one set of guilty verdicts in a trial of his former campaign manager and another, his personal lawyer, plead guilty on several counts, including two where he directly implicated the president. On the other hand, I would tell you that my approach to the president and I think I had the chance earlier to tell you the story of my first time meeting with him, where I said. “I’m going to talk about buy America policies because that’s clearly something that we agree on and we can work together on.” And so the bottom line is if he’s proposing something that helps Wisconsin, I’m probably going to work with him. And if he’s proposing something or has done something to harm Wisconsin, I’m going to stand up, just as I always do.

Frederica Freyberg:

What’s your position as to whether Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court should be delayed because of the conviction of Paul Manafort and the guilty plea of Michael Cohen?

Tammy Baldwin:

Well, I think Wisconsinites demand a fair, impartial, independent judge — justice on the Supreme Court because the stakes are so high. I mean, this next justice will probably have a pivotal vote on that very case to consider whether pre-existing health conditions are going to be covered. They’ll have deciding vote on whether Roe versus Wade will remain the law of the land and women will have equality and also access to reproductive health care. They’ll decide on incredibly important powerful environmental cases. And the list goes on. But they’ll also decide whether they’re going to side with corporate special interests or with consumers and workers and those who have a dispute to bring to the Supreme Court. Now, it’s up to Chairman Grassley whether he wants to delay. I think there’s already been a real concern about documents not being delivered. He’ll decide. I doubt he’ll delay it. But he could.

Frederica Freyberg:

I think this is true. The National Rifle Association gives you a score of F for your positions on gun control and your challenger whom it endorses variably an A or A+. What gun control measures do you think need to be enacted?

Tammy Baldwin:

Well, it shows you where the NRA is. I’m a gun owner myself. And so I strongly support the Second Amendment. But I do not think that the Second Amendment precludes common sense safety legislation. At the federal level, I think we need to have a comprehensive, universal background check with no loopholes for internet sales or going to gun shows and not having a thorough background check. And then I think we have to go beyond there. There are a number of provisions relating to, frankly, the ability to convert a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapon with a bump stock. And I think we should be considering these enormous magazines that can allow so many shots to be fired. Those aren’t needed for — those are weapons of war, basically, on our streets and we’ve got to step up.

Frederica Freyberg:

Why did you vote against the federal tax cut?

Tammy Baldwin:

Are you talking about the tax legislation that was brought forward last year?

Frederica Freyberg:

Yes.

Tammy Baldwin:

Well, first of all, I strongly support middle class tax cuts. And, frankly, that was too little of the focus of that bill. And they weren’t even permanent, meaning they’re going to go up again. But 83% of the tax measure went to the top 1% in the individual side and very profitable multinational corporations and others on the corporate side. They actually gave corporations more than they asked for, leaving over a trillion dollar hole in our nation’s budget. We were told it would trickle down, but I haven’t seen the sort of pay raises and investments in manufacturing that I was told or, you know, that was part of what was touted. And lastly, with this hole in our budget now of a trillion dollars, there are people who are talking about cutting social security, Medicare, Medicaid. The safety nets for a secure retirement for somebody who’s worked hard their whole life. That’s absolutely unacceptable to me.

Frederica Freyberg:

Are you among Democrats who believe who believe that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE ought to be eliminated in the wake of the administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy?

Tammy Baldwin:

I do not support the elimination of ICE, but I do support a real focus on setting priorities. The enforcement of our immigration laws ought to be prioritized to start with dangerous criminals, drug dealers. And when we see and hear some of the stories, it’s clear that they don’t always have their priorities right and they ought to be overseen both by the administration and the Congress of the United States. But on the larger topic, I do believe we need comprehensive immigration reform. We have a broken system, for sure. That that comprehensive reform ought to address the plight of the dreamers, these child separations that are immoral on our southern border and also create strong but smart border security.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Senator Tammy Baldwin, thanks very much.

Tammy Baldwin:

Thank you.