Coffee with Candidates: Senator Ed Markey

He may be 80 years old, but Senator Ed Markey says he's energized for a possible third term. He told me and GBH's Adam Riley he's confident Democrats will retake the House and Senate in November, and he believes his experience will be necessary then. We recently all sat down at McKenna's Cafe in Dorchester. Coffee, extra cream, extra sugar. No messing around. How many a day? One cup a day. Just the one. How's the campaign going? There's something in me. I'm kind of genetically hardwired to love campaigning, and I always have. And so whether it's Dorchester or Pittsfield, every kind of community has its own special quality to it that makes my day something that's memorable. I want to get this out of the way. I don't want to talk about the age issue again, but I do want to ask you why, after all the service you've done to the nation, and you still want to serve, and you don't want to take it easy? Well, Donald Trump gets me up every single day with his tweet of the morning about something else that he is going to try to destroy in American society. He's done a good job attacking all of the programs that are essential for people in Dorchester or other working-class communities all across the Commonwealth, which is why next year is going to be so important, and we'll need people who know what to do. You think the election will be free and fair, both when it happens and its aftermath, or maybe not? He has talked openly about deploying ICE agents on Election Day. He has talked openly about invoking the Insurrection Act, deploying the Marines and the Army in communities across the country on Election Day. What's an effective way to respond if that happens? Well, right now, we have lawyers who are already drafting the emergency case to be brought to the Supreme Court of the United States before the election and then in the immediate aftermath. We're also in a process of having thousands of lawyers get ready to be deployed all across our country in the key states. We have to be ready to have millions of people come out of their homes to be protesting what Trump is trying to perpetrate as an electoral crime on our nation's history. Do you really think this is a likely possibility? I think it's very possible. I think that he is growing increasingly desperate. The fact that the president has now visited Texas over and over and over again in order to save the otherwise perfectly safe Republican Senate seat in Texas is an example of how far the fortunes of the Republican Party have slipped this year. The fact that he's campaigning in places like Kansas and Nebraska and Iowa. These are all safe Republican seats historically, but they're not this year. The wave is coming. The wave is turning into a tsunami. So it is true he's campaigning in red states and that there are some Republicans at risk of maybe losing in these red states. but there are some Dems in other blue states that are not faring as well as maybe they historically would also. I wonder, do you think there's anything to be said about the electorate being dissatisfied with both parties at this point? The cost of gasoline is up. The cost of home heating oil is up. The cost of everything is up. And Donald Trump is being blamed for it electorally, and someone's going to have to pay the price, and it's going to be Republicans on the ballot this November. And they know it. They can see it in the polling. Your opponent, John Deaton, suggests that abolish ICE, something you have called for, is nothing more than a slogan. So is it a campaign slogan? And if you do abolish ICE, how do you regulate immigration? I was one of the only members of Congress to vote no on its establishment in its beginning in 2022. I was a no vote because I could see the seeds of authoritarianism in the hands of a president who wanted to use that agency for his own evil purposes. So, no, ICE has to be removed, and then we need a new system that we put in place on a bipartisan basis in our country for the immigration process which we need to establish in the future. He's frustrated that he says you tie him to the president, and he says I'm not beholden to him, I didn't vote for him, I'm not going to run with him if I get elected. What do you say to that? Have no doubts about what the consequences are of a Senate seat in Massachusetts going to a Republican. It means the Republicans won't control the United States Senate next year. It means there'll be no investigations of Donald Trump, his children, his cronies, his corporations. There'll be no restoration of any of the health care, education, or environmental programs that are so central to Massachusetts' economy and the national economy. We will not win the United States Senate if John Deaton is a Republican from Massachusetts on the floor of the Senate. So that's what's at stake. You've been around for many decades in a very public position. So what do you want them to take away from you right now as they're deciding who to vote for and know about your campaign and what you want to do for the people of Massachusetts? I think that my story of being the son of a truck driver and my ability to sit on my porch in Malden and dream my dreams that I could wind up as a United States Senator is under assault by Donald Trump. He's attacking the dreams of every boy and every girl in every working class and poor family in our country. He's trying to strip away those programs, trying to strip away that ladder, trying to remove that strong floor and unlimited ceiling that I was given and that those kids today deserve. And that Donald Trump is bringing out the Malden in me every single day. And I'm going to go and fight for those families, whether they're from Boston or Brockton or Malden or Springfield or Worcester. Senator Markey, thank you so much. Thank you. That was great. Senator, appreciate it. Thank you.