Congressman Dean Phillips thank you so much for your time and for joining us here at NTD news we're the second day of the DNC uh what are your expectations for tonight's messages I know that the theme is a a bold vision for America's future well I have to say that I I've been joking with many that I I was a fearful that we'd be attending a funeral and it feels now like a birth and I think tonight's messages from the Obamas and others is going to be celebratory I think the last time the Democratic party felt this kind of energy was probably in 2008 with Barack OB himself so I think there's an interesting uh bridge that might be built tonight but this is just the beginning and um this honeymoon will you know not last forever and I think next week the real campaign begins and uh but we're going to leave here energized and optimistic and hopeful and I think that message of you know um of working together uh and setting aside differences uh and Building Bridges and listening to voters is the one that should permeate this and people are going to go home pretty excited Congressman you're talking about building bridges and of course uh we have seen a different mood here at the DNC from what we thought it was going to be a month ago but there's also a bridge to be uh built in between Republicans and Democrats coming to the election do you think uh vice president camel Harris as the nominee for the Democratic party will be able to do that I sure hope so and you know and let me reflect on Joe Biden's leadership that was his superpower compassion decency respect and bipartisanship but there is a toxic culture that is permeating a lot of our politics and it is not easy it's easy to talk about it it's harder to do you know that has been my Mantra it's been my mission since I joined Congress and I've been reasonably successful in doing so I hope I really do hope that soon to be I hope president Harris and vice president walls make that a priority literally a platform element um to express the invitation to other PE thinkers uh political thinkers and people who eat prey think and live differently than perhaps you know based Democratic voters and I'd like to think that in the future Democratic and Republican presidents will consider adding members of their cabinet from the other side of the aisle to demonstrate to Americans that their vo is going to be heard in the white house because in this kind of a democracy with such close elections it's difficult when about half the country feels left out of that conversation so I hope so uh I will encourage it and promote that and either way it is incumbent on elected officials all around the country to start expressing more respect for one another and modeling the behavior that we'd expect of not just American citizens but World citizens Congressman you know right now the focus is of course in the presidential race but uh when we discuss the policies that uh camela Harris has proposed already um she's going to need the help of Congress to get a lot of that done uh and of course right now Congress is at a gridlock how do you see uh the elections playing out for the composition of the house and the Senate well I would have said I mean I would have said that if Joe Biden was going to be the nominee that we wouldn't just lose the White House but almost certainly the Senate and and not recapture the house and that would have been tragic uh now I think it's just the opposite I think that pendulum is swinging fast in the other direction I think the White House certainly is Within Reach I think the Senate can be held and I think we will bend back the house that's integral but I also remind viewers that our Founders in the United States intended the presidency to be the chief executive the executive branch to execute the laws not to make them that is the job of Congress but is that vacuum that occurs when Congress is dysfunctional that requires the administration to basically set the policy agenda but that is something I think Americans have to start giving more thought to is electing presidents who are ready to lead not just in a policy perspective but really in a management perspective run the agencies well provide good customer service to you know to Americans and also to provide good value for taxpayers that's kind of become a lost start on both sides of the aisle and I'd like to think that uh pres president Harris and vice president walls will make that a priority as well