The One Thing Ro Khanna Thinks Donald Trump Gets Right – POLITICO

Its Bidens messaging, not the message, that he seems to disagree with.

And on this topic Khanna shifts into off the record speak, punctuating every few actual words with the phrase off the record off the record off the record like hes redacting a document. Its the rare instance in which he sounds inarticulate.

What Khanna will say for readers is this: Bidens instincts are much better than all the junior staff who work for him, he tells me. He speaks in language thats not politically correct. When his staff winces at things, hes channeling what real Americans think. And I think theyre too careful. I think: Let him be out there. Let him speak. Let him inspire. Dont try to over-protect him. I mean, thats the only thing that I can think of . . . he says, trailing off.

Consider Ro Khannas own district, Californias 17th.

The area spans parts of Silicon Valley and, in approximately 185 square miles, contains $11 trillion in market capital. One big tech company in the area is Intel. The chip-making corporation is pledging to build semiconductor fabrication plants outside Columbus, Ohio, bringing thousands of jobs to the area. I would be taking weekly trips to Columbus, Khanna says.

If Trump were still in office, the whole country would have known about it.

Biden could go there, he says, and people could see a party with energy. A forward motion. A sense that we are on the march. On the move. It seems like Washington is not moving. Its all caught up in staleness. And in this imagined trip to Ohio, Khanna envisions Biden on stage with a new generation of active, exciting members with him, he says not needing to mention, of course, that he would be one of them.

Ro Khanna was 27 years old when he saw Barack Obama deliver his speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. From the cheap seats at the Fleet Center in Boston, he attended as a volunteer for John Kerry, watching the future president deliver what he felt was an I love America speech.

Less than 10 years later, Khanna ran for his Congressional district, losing to seven-term incumbent Mike Honda. Two years later, he ran again and this time, he won. Khanna is now one of the most visible young Democrats in Congress. Inside the bookcases in his office, memoirs by Gene Sperling and Elizabeth Warren flank a potty-training manual. (Khanna has two young children at home. As a rule, he and his wife do not discuss them in political settings.)

A former lecturer of economics at Stanford University, Khanna is academic by nature, conversant in the technology of his district and how to transfer some of that wealth to the rest of the country. But he draws some blanks on the cultural fascination with his district. Khanna makes a point of reading People magazine, just to see if Im keeping up, he says. I used to have this challenge on pop culture. When I ask whether hes watching The Dropout, a Hulu series about Silicon Valleys most well-known fraud case, the story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, Khanna says no, but also doesnt seem to know what Im talking about. That night, at drinks with friends, he tells me a few days later, they explained the show and told him, You really should be watching this.

While he is eager to model at least parts of Trumps approach to the news cycle, he does not share the same appetite for celebrity entertainment. At the Gridiron dinner in Washington last weekend, Khanna agreed that the featured Republican speaker, Chris Sununu, was genuinely funny and witty. But when a guest turned to him mid-speech and said, That guy could be president, Khanna flinched. I was like, really? This is what we need in this country? Like, the bar is entertaining and stand-up comedy? I mean, its better to have a sense of humor than not. Lincoln had one. Reagan had one. But the deification of entertainment as, like, the criteria for what we want in our president it was amusing to me.

In his office, Khanna clips his iPhone into a tripod by his desk, staring into the small screen. As he flits from the Hartmann podcast to a meeting with progressive leaders to a hit with Fox News Digital, the congressman has the look of a man who is waiting a guest in his own building until the next generation truly takes over. In Washington, the big-name Democrats who have power or have come close to it Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders are all over 70.

Congressman Ro Khanna prepares for a Zoom call in his office at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC, on April 1, 2022. Detail shot of Khanna's bookshelf.

Why has the transition to a newer generation been so slow? There are two reasons, Khanna says. One is structural: Running for office still requires money and name recognition. But the second reason is philosophical.

We are in such a time of flux that the familiar is more comfortable for people. People are craving stability.

But there will be a moment when people say, OK, its time for the new.

Khannas last interview of the day is with Fox Newss America Reports, in the rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building. He has been asked, and not for the first time, to talk about rising oil prices. On Foxs daily programming, Biden is to blame for rampant inflation, but Khanna is asking viewers to consider the role of the corporations. As chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Environment, he has waged a monthslong campaign against oil executives, forcing six to testify before lawmakers for the first time late last fall.

He likes going on Fox. Some activists on the left criticize him for it, but for Khanna, its a sport. He enjoys the pressure of debate, the ability to measure his own performances after the fact. If you are a Democrat and not going on these shows, Khanna says, then youre not getting intellectually challenged. Youre not hearing the counter-argument. Youre not seeing the blind spots to your point of view. After each hit, he sometimes checks Twitter to read the reviews. A recent appearance on Neil Cavutos show, he says, wasnt one of his best interviews, but Cavuto had raised some very good points, also about oil prices, and this he enjoyed.

Frankly, it made me think harder about the question.

Read more here:

The One Thing Ro Khanna Thinks Donald Trump Gets Right - POLITICO