The following is a transcript of an interview with Rep. Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Nov. 10, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: We’re joined now by Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna. He’s in California this morning. Good morning to you. This was a rough week for Democrats. I don’t have to tell you that, but Congressman, I mean, just to level with the American people, Democrats and the Harris campaign told them that the fate of democracy itself was at stake. Was that a cynical political tactic, or, if it’s reality, what is the plan now?
REP. RO KHANNA: Well, Margaret, I think what was at stake is the degradation of American democracy, the coarseness of political discourse, the idea that you have people who are undocumented, 12 million, who may be subject to a violation of their rights. The issues about climate and the reversal on that. I’ve never said that you weren’t going to have future elections, and I was never one of these people who said you’re not going to have 2026 or 2028 in one or two years, Donald Trump is going to be a lame duck. But I do think that we need to make sure we stand up for people’s rights in this country and are looking forward and what we can do to win back the House and the White House.
MARGARET BRENNAN: When we look at CBS polling, when you compare Harris in 2024 to Biden in 2020 you see clearly that the Democratic coalition lost support among Latino voters, young voters, women. Republicans really made gains here with men of color as well. Why do you think there is this fracturing?
REP. RO KHANNA: We did not have a compelling enough economic vision. The Democratic Party should have one simple mission, and that is to address the economic hardships and struggles of many Americans, not just working class Americans, a large slice of Americans who feel the American Dream has slipped away for their families and their kids, and you have new voices Congress, people like Pat Ryan, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Chris Deluzio, who are saying, look, we need to have a vision on building new factories, on helping raise minimum wage, on dealing with child care, and emphasize that our party has a better economic story. I think that could unify our party, moderates and progressives. And it transcends race and will help us with Latino voters, Black voters, white working class voters, and we have a better vision than Donald Trump on that.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You know, it’s interesting in this Monday morning quarterbacking that’s happening to hear from so many Democrats now, who are saying that they think that economic message should have been front and center, but that they felt constrained somehow by this focus on identity politics. Tom Suozzi of New York brought that up talking about Republicans being able to weaponize anarchy on college campuses, defunding the police and gender questions and girls sports. Do you think this, you know, movement “woke” politics really was incredibly damaging to the left, because a large part of that came from the progressive wing in, of which you are a member.
REP. RO KHANNA: Well, I have always said that we need to be emphasizing the economic issues, but I don’t think we should run away for standing up for trans rights, for standing up for equal rights for people, for teaching American history responsibly. You can be true to your values with two things, Margaret. One, if someone disagrees with you, we need to respect that disagreement, not cancel or shame them. Don’t shy away from your convictions, but have a reasonable conversation. I did that with Megyn Kelly on a podcast on trans rights. I stuck to my position, but we had a reasonable conversation. The second thing is, if we emphasize the economic hardships people are facing, I’ve got $12 trillion in my district in Silicon Valley, while towns like Johnstown were hollowed out. Galesburg, Illinois were hollowed out. We can build new factories. We can build new industry. We can create new economic opportunity. We have a vision of how to do that. Biden -President Biden started it. I think we can win over people, even if they may not agree with us on a particular social issue.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Let me ask you specifically about your district. Since you just mentioned it, Silicon Valley was thought of as reliably blue, but particularly in this election, you saw money going towards Donald Trump. You’ve seen some very prominent tech names, Elon Musk, significantly. And JD Vance, the vice-presidential candidate. He really reached out into that tech community as part of that campaign. What is the thing that Silicon Valley thinks it’s going to get from a Trump administration? Is it, is it no taxes on capital gains? Is it not regulating crypto? What is it that the people in your district think they’re getting from Donald Trump?
REP. RO KHANNA: Well, first of all, Margaret, 70% of Silicon Valley still supported Vice President Harris and Democrats —
MARGARET BRENNAN: – Yes
REP. KHANNA: But you’re right that we had a slippage and probably now 20-30% support Donald Trump. They have different reasons for doing it. Some of them want more free speech. Some of them want deregulation. Some of them want tax cuts. Some of them want AI not to be regulated. Some of them were concerned on crypto. But I think what the Democrats need to remind folks of, and I’ve reminded Elon of this, is that Tesla got funding from President Obama. SpaceX got started because Ash Carter, under President Obama, helped Elon get that facility. The Democrats are the party that has invested in the science and technology to help build Silicon Valley, and we can be the party that helps AI robotics, build new factories, build new industry in different parts of the country. When we argue policy, we have a better vision for how to get Americans prosperity in a modern economy. And if we focus on that, I believe we will win back the majority and win back in 2028.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Former Speaker Pelosi told The New York Times there were messaging errors, yes, but she also said there should have been an open primary system here, and that President Biden’s decision to endorse Vice President Harris immediately made it impossible. Do you agree with her?
REP. RO KHANNA: Well, look, I have a lot of respect for Speaker Pelosi, but I’ve sort of chuckled when people have said this about President Biden, because the day he got out, we had Democrats with the most over the top superlatives comparing him to George Washington, saying he did the most honorable thing. So now to go back and criticize him seems a bit contradictory. I think this was a winnable campaign. Even when he got out, Vice President Harris was five points up in some of the polls. Anyone who is saying now, this was not a winnable campaign, didn’t say that back in August. The reason we didn’t win, ultimately, is we didn’t listen enough to people on the ground, people like Chris Deluzio, Pat Ryan, who were saying, talk about the economy, talk about people’s economic struggles. Have- convince people you have the better policies and better vision. The reason I’m hopeful for the future is we have the substance. We actually- you can’t build new factories just with tariffs and tax cuts. You need federal financing. We have actual investment in apprenticeships. And I think over the long run, the American people will see the truth of the policy ideas.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You were a surrogate for Joe Biden. You were then a surrogate for Kamala Harris, and on this program, you defended both. Many times, one place you did create space was on the issue of Gaza. You said, when you were going to college campuses, when you were talking to progressives, when you were talking to voters of color, not just Arabs and Muslims. You heard there was a problem here. Do you think that the numbers you saw, particularly in Michigan, vindicated your point of view, or was there just a greater force at work?
REP. RO KHANNA: I think she would have certainly won Michigan if there was more of a reckoning with the failures of policy on Gaza. That wasn’t my point of view. That was the point of view of a lot of people I was hearing on the ground. I also think beyond Michigan, this really was a concern for a lot of young people and a lot of progressives. Now my hope is because President Trump got some of the votes for the Muslim and Arab community. I was just on a bipartisan CODEL in Saudi Arabia. They have said that if the President wants a deal with Saudi Arabia, that the Palestinian state and a two state solution has to be front and center. And I hope we can work towards actually doing that after the war.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Ro Khanna, Congressman, thank you very much for your time today. We’ll be right back.