ABC "This Week" - TRANSCRIPT 'This Week' Transcript 1-1-23: Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Rep.-elect Max Frost
Interview
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KARL: You haven't been sworn in yet, but do you feel like a member of Congress yet?
REP. MAXWELL FROST (D-FL): I'm definitely feeling the love, especially from a lot of the Democrats, especially in the different caucuses I'm joining.
KARL: And when you were running you had to do some Uber work, right? You worked as an Uber driver?
KARL: Because you needed to -- you needed to live while you were also running for --
FROST: Yes.
KARL: -- for Congress. What's it going to be like up here? I mean, this is not cheap. Do you have to --
FROST: Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's not cheap. I'm dealing with it right now, getting denied from apartments, trying to figure out where to live because I have bad credit. I'm probably just going to have, like, couch surf for a little bit.
KARL: You -- you're actually -- so, you're 25, soon to be 26. But you've actually been at this a long time.
FROST: Mm-hmm.
KARL: I mean, you're kind of like a veteran political activist.
FROST: I've been in this for 10 years. Actually, just last night I spoke at the vigil for all victims of gun violence right down the road at Saint Mark's Episcopal Church. And I've been going to that vigil for 10 years, since I was 15 years old.
KARL: And it was Sandy Hook which was one of those tragedies that, you know, you can think, like, where were you when you heard the news of that horrific --
FROST: Yeah.
KARL: -- horrific massacre. But that's what got you into this?
FROST: That's what got me into it, yes. I mean, it was, I went to Arts high school and middle school. And before every jazz band concert, my best friends and I would go across the street to this restaurant, load up on a ton of junk food.
And I remember, they're eating, and there was a silence that fell across the restaurant. We looked up at the television screens and saw that somebody walked into an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, and murdered 20 children and 6 teachers. And I remember at the show that night I was playing, couldn't think straight, kept looking at the exits. I was very anxious. And it's really what propelled me to come up here to the vigil and dedicated my life to fighting for a world where there's no gun violence.
KARL: So I saw one of your campaign ads features this interaction you had with DeSantis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, CAMPAIGN AD)
FROST: Two months ago, I confronted Governor DeSantis on ending gun violence and what did he say?
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: Nobody wants to hear from you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KARL: What was -- what was going on there?
FROST: Yes. So look, Governor DeSantis never comes to Orlando. And when he does, it's to either do a press conference where he's spewing bigotry and hate or to make money for his friends, which is exactly what he was doing there. He was a special guest at a private thing for a podcaster. And so we -- in the -- in the spirit of direct action and protest, we decided to show up.
And look, I didn't stand up and yell and curse at him or anything. I just stood up and said, you know, Governor, what's your plan to end gun violence? We're dying. And this was about a week and a half after the Uvalde shooting. He hadn't said a single word about ending gun violence.
And so, we came to him more with a plea and what I got in return was "nobody wants to hear from you", getting dragged out by security, having popcorn thrown at me and people yelling curse words and racial slurs.
KARL: And what was the reception that you got for -- for that ad? I mean -- I mean that kind of -- in the moment it went viral.
FROST: Yes. Yes.
KARL: I mean, getting shouted down by the Republican governor as a young candidate --
FROST: Yeah.
KARL: -- as a Democrat must actually not have been a bad thing.
FROST: Yes. Well, you know, we decided to flip it on its head --
KARL: Yeah.
FROST: -- and use it. And we put it on broadcast in the district. We, you know, got nothing but people giving us calls and sending us messages saying "I saw your ad. I haven't seen an ad like that, ever, or in a long time."
KARL: But you -- you were also -- you were sent to campaign in Georgia.
FROST: Yes.
KARL: You hadn't even been sworn in yet as a -- as a member of Congress but you were campaigning for Raphael Warnock.
FROST: Yes.
KARL: And I noticed you playing drums --
FROST: Oh, yeah.
KARL: -- at a -- at a Students for Warnock event.
FROST: That was in an indoor skate park. It's one of the coolest campaign events I've ever been to.
KARL: Wow.
FROST: Yes.
KARL: So are we going to be seeing more of that? I mean, you were a -- you're a -- you're a jazz drummer?
FROST: Yes. Yes, I play jazz, hip-hop, different --
KARL: Yes.
FROST: -- you know, styles. Yes, of course. I mean something that I want to work on, it's a bit more extracurricular, is bringing the arts more on the Hill, having concerts on the Hill, stuff like that. I think it's important. I -- the arts are -- it's really important to me. I mean, it's at the level of politics for me.
KARL: What do you want to kind of define your time in Congress?
FROST: Yes, I mean, I want to get things done, right. And I want to make sure that -- I know we have to compromise to get things done, especially in this next Congress. But I never want to lose sight of our North Star. I -- I think we're in this politics now where people are scared to talk about their North Star, I mean, even in my own party, right. And I think it's important that we not lose sight of that. Health care for everybody, ending gun violence, combating the climate crisis, these things are really important.
And even though we're not going to get it next year, you can't take a first step in a journey if you don't know where you're going, right.
KARL: With Democrats you have a debate between those that want to take the incremental win and those that say, no, we've got to hold out for something bigger.
FROST: Yeah, I mean, I think it can seem that way, and I think that's a part of it, but I think it's less of an ideological battle and more of a battle of figuring out how we're -- what are we talking about and what are we doing in this moment? It's not that progressives and -- it's not that me -- and that I don't believe in incremental change, right? I've been working in gun violence for 10 years.
KARL: Yes.
FROST: We just got some incremental change with the bipartisan gun safety package that was passed. It wasn't everything that we need, but it's a good first step to ensuring that we end gun violence.
I think it's important to realize that it's OK to ask for a lot, in fact that's why people have sent us here. It doesn't mean we're not going to compromise for something else, but it means we shouldn't show up at the debate already at the compromise.
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