Ask a Pol uaps

Who? Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) Ask a Pol asked: How worried are you after seeing that Biden deepfake in the New Hampshire primary? Key Collins: “It’s exactly the kind of thing we’ve been worried about, is using the AI, it is remarkably easy to imitate voices or send out a video of someone who is running for office and appears to be doing something or saying something that is utterly fake. And I’m...

Who? Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) — candidate to replace Mitch McConnell as Senate GOP Leader Ask a Pol asks: “Any update on last year’s conversations on declassification?” Key Cornyn:  “That’s pretty monumental. We haven’t had classification reform in, I don’t know, quarter century or more,” Cornyn told Ask a Pol . “It’s gonna take a little while to be implemented. But we’ve done something pretty impo...

Who? Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS) Ask a Pol asked: “Some of your colleague have called for a more sweeping, catch-all AI bill — is it better, from your standpoint, to do this committee by committee and small? Or?” Key Moran  “Well, I’d love to see committees do their work. And there’s wide jurisdiction here, with lots of consequences. And I think it’s a broad enough issue that if every committee did th...

Who? Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) Ask a Pol asked: Have you dropped your new stablecoin measure with Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) yet? House holdup:  “No. We're waiting for the House to maybe reach consensus first,” Gillibrand exclusively tells Ask a Pol . “ So we're hoping that [Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine] Waters (D-CA) and [Financial Services Chair Patrick] McHenry (R-NC)...

Who? Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) Ask a Pol asks: “What do you make of Democrats pushing Biden and the DEA to deschedule on their own?” Key Harris:  “I just object to the fact that it’s done by changing the FDA rules that they have used to set the standard,” Harris exclusively tells Ask a Pol . “That’s a problem. That’s a real problem. “The FDA already has a credibility problem, now they brought politi...

Who? Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) Ask a Pol asks: “Kinda surprised to see you there, because you weren’t at the previous SCIF briefing. What made you — what put that one on your radar?” Key Khanna “The gist would be, I’m on Oversight [Committee]. There’s been a lot of interest in it from the media and my constituents, so I wanted to hear about it.” Caught our ear “I just ended up with more questions. Una...

Who? Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) Hawley’s asked So do you think there’s time this year for AI legislation? Key Hawley “Time? Yes. Willingness? No,” Hawley replies. “Tech companies, they always get their way here” “I don’t get it. I don’t understand why these companies, these tech companies, they always get their way here. It’s all the same people. It’s Microsoft. It’s Google. It’s Meta. And they alway...

Who? Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-IL) Ask a Pol asks: “We’re not hearing much about cannabis these days… Ahead of November, should Biden — Democrats in the Senate are calling on the DEA to [reschedule]?” Key Garcia:  “Absolutely. It’s a get-out-the-vote rally cry,” Garcia exclusively told Ask a Pol . “Yeah. Hell yeah! With young people. Others, too — old f*****s too!” Caught our ear:   “It’s there to be se...

Who? Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) Ask a Pol asks: “Do you think we’ll see any Senate action on deepfakes ahead of the election now we’re in the midst?” Key Kaine:  “Pretty nervous about this,” Kaine told Ask a Pol . “Because of Biden robocall, the fake Biden robocall. I haven’t heard discussion of Senate action about it. But I think all of us paid a lot of attention to that, and we have members who’ve be...

Who? Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) Ask a Pol asked: “At the end of last year, Biden announced he was gonna pardon people for small amounts of marijuana possession. Just today — or yesterday — he announced that he’s not going to extend that to the military . Do you think he should extend that to the military?” Source: US Army Clarifies That Biden’s Marijuana Pardons Don’t Apply To Military Personnel ;...

Who? Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) — former Senate GOP Whip; running to replace Sen. Mitch McConnell as GOP Leader Ask a Pol asked: “What was your takeaway from all those AI briefings and forums?” Clutch Cornyn:  “I think there’s been a lot of hype,” Cornyn tells Ask a Pol . “I think it’s a good idea for us to understand it better, but I don’t think the scare tactics have been particularly useful.” Caug...

Who? Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) Ask a Pol asked: “What did you make of [SEC Chair Gary] Gensler’s move on crypto at the SEC?” Key Sherman:  “I think anything that adds more additional regulation to the space is a good idea,” Sherman told Ask a Pol , adding “The right time was five years ago, but it’ll do for now.” LISTEN: Laslo & Sherman Matt Laslo’ s a veteran congressional correspondent , new medi...

Who? Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) Ask a Pol asks: “We didn’t see anything with SAFER? Or do you think the DEA is the root to go?” Key Blumenauer:  “I think the DEA is the route,” Blumenauer exclusively tells Ask a Pol . “It’s more direct. The legislative process is very uncertain — more uncertain than ever — and the DEA strips it away, gets what we need in terms of tax and research.” Caught our ear...

Who? Rep. James Comer (R-KY) — House Oversight Committee Chair Ask a Pol asks: “It seems like [ Intel. Chair Mike Turner ]’s kinda goading the administration to declassify some of this stuff?” Clutch Comer:  “T hat’s part of the problem with these, with the whole mishandling of the classified documents for both Biden and Trump, there’s too many classified documents,” Comer exclusively tells Ask a...

Who: Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) — chair of Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs, which UFO whistleblower David Grusch testified in front of July 27, 2023 Ask a Pol asked: “Do you have any follow up questions for David Grusch on the hearing you had last summer?” Grothman grumbles : “Oh, we may do something else, yeah,” Grothman tells Ask a Pol . “...

Who? Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) – House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Ask a Pol asks: “Curious about your thoughts on this classified… what Turner said should be declassified.” Clutch Crenshaw:  “Yeah, I agree this should be declassified, and I can’t talk about it til it is,” Crenshaw exclusively told Ask a Pol . “There’s public interest in having that.” Content posted at AskaPol.com is...

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) reacts to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s announcement on cryptocurrencies at the start of 2024. LISTEN: Laslo & Sen. Gillibrand  Matt Laslo covers tech politics for WIRED , lectures on technology’s impact on government at Johns Hopkins and is the founder of Ask a Pol — a new people-powered press corps. On social @MattLaslo // @Ask_a_Pol Ask a Pol — asking y...

Who? Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) — serves on both Senate Judiciary & Commerce Committees Ask a Pol asked: Is there any chatter or movement on your deepfake legislation ? Clutch Klobuchar:  ““Well, I hope so. I guess it’s gotten frontpage interest now. And this is what I said: hair on fire — we can’t wait until next year to get this done. This is just going to keep happening, and that’s why this bann...

Who? Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) Ask a Pol asked: “What role do you think US drug policy plays in destabilizing the border?” Key Paul:  “Well, it does. I mean, there are drugs involved, but I don’t know if I have an easy answer. There’s no easy answer as to it, you know?”* * we never asked for an easy answer… LISTEN: Laslo & Rand Paul Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol ’s exclusive interview wit...

On Wednesday morning Congressional UAP Caucus co-chairs Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) and Tim Burchett (R-TN) met along with caucus member Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) to discuss how to best advance their ongoing investigation. After two classified SCIF briefings exploring the allegations made by UFO whistleblower David Grusch that frustrated members of the UAP Caucus , Luna says the trio decided it’...

Who? Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) — House Majority Whip Ask a Pol asked: “What’d you make of the SEC’s announcement on crypto?” Key Emmer : “It's about time. It was so intellectually inconsistent…” Clutch Emmer:  “It's amazing to me. What happened to Gary Gensler ?” LISTEN: Laslo & Emmer on crypto FULL RAW political chat w/ Laslo and press corps Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s interview with...

Who? Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) — Senate Majority Whip (ie #2 Senate Democrat) Ask a Pol ’s ask : “Now that we’ve seen deepfakes deployed — you know, using Biden’s voice — in New Hampshire, do you think Congress is going to be able to address that ahead of November?” Key (and only…) Quote:  “Gotta ask Amy Klobuchar. I think she’s got some proposals on that, deepfakes.” Interview helped inform this fe...

Who? Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) Ask a Pol ’s ask : Matt Laslo ’s always juggling numerous commissions that sometimes overlap in odd ways. This brief exchange with Cramer is meandering; a conversation, really. Laslo starts asking about the New Hampshire primary before he zeroes in on the Biden deepfake in NH , which then evolves into an AI conversation where Cramer uses crypto as a revealing example…...

Who? Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) — Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ask a Pol asked: “What role do you think US drug policy plays in destabilizing Latin American and South America?” Clutch Coons : “I think the amount of weapons coming from the United States into Mexico and Central America is significantly destabilizing. A bipartisan group that I traveled with to Mexico City heard that directly from...

Don’t miss this week’s live Ask a Pol Live with Lawmakers Q & A with Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) — a freshman member of Congress who’s become an unofficial leader on the Congressional UAP Caucus. FULL INTERVIEW — Live w/ lawmakers: Laslo, Ask a Pol community Q & A with Rep. Burlison Ask a Pol’s live Discord Thursday Jan. 18, 2024. Video: An original Colman Jones production. Original video production...