Who?Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA)LISTEN: Laslo & LaMalfaAsk a Pol asks:What is your pitch to voters for this election, given that the 118th Congress has been historically unproductive?Key LaMalfa: “After these two years? I'm having a hard time,” Rep. Doug LaMalfa exclusively tells Ask a Pol. “I've been really cynical lately.”ICYMI — Interview first included in Matt Laslo’s Raw Story feature, “Dysfunction on display: Republicans complain Speaker Johnson is no Pelosi”On some Republican colleagues and voters:“When you ask the initial question like, ‘How do you go about bragging on that?’ I can't brag on that, you know? But I can say all the bad things we blocked that would have happened had the Dems been in the majority,” LaMalfa tells us. “And we passed some good bills here and there, and we've kept the place going. I think we've curbed spending to a degree that would not have happened otherwise so we will put some breaks on some things here. But is that — you know, do people wanna hear putting breaks on things or do they want to hear great new things?” Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA), slightly edited for clarity.TRANSCRIPT: Rep. Doug LaMalfaSCENE: Ask a Pol’s Matt Laslo interviews Rep. Doug LaMalfa as he makes his way to a vote on the floor of the US House of Representatives via an underground tunnel. Matt Laslo: “Do you know — how do you — what's your pitch to voters?”Doug LaMalfa: “Would you get on this side?”ML: “Yeah, yeah. What's your pitch to voters?”DL: “Pitch to voters?”ML: “Send me back…”DL: “Not a good one.”ML: “Send me back so I can not...”DL: “After these two years?”ML: “…fund the government. Yeah.”DL: “I'm having a hard time.”ML: “Why is that?”DL: “You've seen this — are we recording?”ML: “Yeah.”DL: “Okay. So I'll have to zip it some up.”Laslo laughs.DL: “(inaudible) your turn for it, but it ends in a show.”ML: “Yeah?”Laslo laughs.DL: “Okay.”ML: “But what — do you blame it on...”DL: “I mean, Republicans are basically have been — our majority has been stoppers.”ML: “Yeah?”DL: “As far as home run policy, we passed some good bills, but they — you know, nothing's in the Senate.” ML: “Yeah?”DL: “Yeah.”ML: “So do you think the problem is that the Senate's been Democrats? Or...”DL: “That's always a problem, isn't it?”ML: “But this time it seems like many members of your party...”DL: “The Senate is always a stopper for our stuff, you know. Even when we have the majority, they can't get 60 [votes] very often. So it has to use maneuvers like you know, re… — for budgeting. Reconsidering? What do you call it?”ML: “Reconciliation.”DL: “Reconciliation, there's a word, yeah. Reconciliation. So…”ML: “How disappointing is it that you guys can't even get the GOP on the same...”DL: “Very. We screwed around getting rid of the speaker. Thank you, appreciate it.”ML: “Yeah?”DL: “Yeah, so we wasted a few days in the beginning on that and about a month in the middle of it. Yeah, it's a problem. And then, you know, our — the package the other day, we had a CR with a SAVE Act in it.”ML: “Yeah?”DL: “And our folks on the — well, a lot of the people that write from — or comment from the right say, now that it's out, ‘Oh, [Speaker] Mike Johnson is a traitor because he took it out.’ Like no, hey, we passed the bill as a standalone in July or so. We had it included, and about 10-11 of us couldn't vote for it.”Subscribe for FREE. ML: “Yeah?”DL: “I gotta get this vote down.”ML: “Cool.”Rep. LaMalfa checks in on status of House vote.DL: “The vote has closed.”ML: “Did they?”DL: “Yeah.”ML: “What?”DL: “There’s two more. Hey, let's catch up.”ML: “There's still a lot of lawmakers coming in this home.”DL: “Yeah, they freaking closed it.”ML: “Weird.”DL: “There was 200 when I left the office and so that's usually enough.”ML: “Yeah?”DL: “I mean, I've been, you know, finding the number, right?”ML: “Yeah?”DL: “And when it's down to 100, I've been getting in trouble.”ML: “Oh, I know.”DL: “Now I got pinched on 200.”ML: “See, I always tell my interns, I'm like, ‘Never keep a lawmaker from their vote because then they're never going to talk to you again.’”DL: “Well, you know, it's our own discipline. We have to walk faster until you know. And you walked with me, so anyway.”ML: “Yeah. I'm sorry about that.”DL: “No, you didn't do it.”ML: “Yeah, it's strange. So how do you guys — is this growing pains for the party? Naturally happens historically? Or…?”DL: “No, I think this is kind of extraordinary.”ML: “Yeah?”DL: “Because, you know, we might have our battles where we usually have come together. This goes back to the state legislature when I was there, and here. And now ...
