During a town hall on Tuesday, Rep. Bill Foster (D-IL) spoke about Republicans who won't speak out against President Trump out of fear of 'being primaried.'
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00We were speaking about some Republican colleagues, have you seen any Republican colleagues who
00:06are outwardly supporting Trump but have indicated that they want to work with you to resist
00:11him?
00:12Well, there's two parts to that question, you know, it turns out, I don't know if you
00:21know this, but I'm sort of an old white guy, and so every time we go to and from votes
00:28we all get crowded in an elevator and often I find myself, you know, surrounded by a group
00:33of other old white guys who self-identify as Republicans, and so they start talking
00:40among themselves not realizing, you know, that there's a spy aboard.
00:46And often, you know, there's uncomfortable jokes made about how horrible Trump is.
00:50So among themselves they understand how far off of normal he has pulled their party.
00:56And then when I have individual conversations, you know, often I have a piece of legislation
01:01I'm trying to find a partner for, and I have my staff look around and say, you know, he's
01:06a doctor, maybe he'll get on board with something pro-science or something like that.
01:10And so, you know, I talk to them, and then sometimes it comes up with a positive result.
01:18But it's, right now, they're just so afraid of being primary.
01:24This is the problem.
01:25Donald Trump gets all his power, and that's actually a problem with our system, as well
01:30as the problem with Donald Trump, because it should not be possible for someone like
01:34Donald Trump to have the power he does.
01:37And the good thing, the good thing, is that he has all the power from one thing, which
01:44is the separate Republican partisan primaries.
01:48He gets all his power by threatening Republicans to put a well-funded primary challenger.
01:55And so that, but it's interesting, there are some states that do not have separate partisan
02:00primaries, like California has top two.
02:02Alaska, interestingly, has rank choice.
02:05And they went to rank choice for the simple reason of keeping Sarah Palin out of Congress.
02:11So remember, when they ran their rank choice thing, they, you know, Sarah Palin had a plurality,
02:20and in a normal system, she would be in Congress.
02:23It turns out she was nobody's second choice, and the way that they reallocated the votes
02:28in the rank choice system to include second place, she lost big.
02:33And we got a moderate Democrat, and since then we've gotten a moderate Republican.
02:38And so that this is a powerful force toward the center.
02:41And actually, even in California, where they have a simple top two, where the top two advance
02:46in the Democratic Party, Donald Trump doesn't even try to play in California, because if
02:51he endorses someone in California, that makes them less likely to win, even in the Republican
02:55district.
02:57So there's a motion in Illinois to start going over either to open primaries or to rank choice
03:03primaries.