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Indy Video: Congresswoman Jacky Rosen on Syria, Spicer, Internet privacy and single-payer health care

Riley Snyder
Riley Snyder
CongressYucca Mountain
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Democratic Congresswoman Jacky Rosen said she supported President Donald Trump’s decision to launch missile strikes into Syria, and called White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s Holocaust comparison irresponsible.

In an interview with The Nevada Independent shortly before her address to the 63 members of the Nevada Legislature, Rosen addressed a wide swath of topics ranging from foreign policy to her position on single-payer health care.

She said that the president’s use of force against the Syrian government last week was “acceptable” but that Trump should present a plan to Congress before future military use.

“As a mother, I look at those babies and those women and children just murdered in the most horrible way, so I know we have to do something,” she said. “Our targeted response I think was acceptable for what we needed to do.”

The congresswoman, a former synagogue president at Ner Tamid in Henderson, said she thought White House press secretary Sean Spicer’s comments comparing the Bashar al-Assad regime to Adolf Hitler were inappropriate but that it wasn’t her place to say whether or not he should be fired.

”I can’t say what’s right or wrong for President Trump, but he needs to deal with his employee the way he sees fit,” she said. “He continues to show insensitivity after insensitivity, and whether he retains his job is up to the president.”

Rosen said she didn’t plan to sign onto legislation introduced by fellow Democratic Rep. John Conyers supporting a “Medicare for All” single payer program co-sponsored by dozens of other House Democrats, saying she instead thought lawmakers should focus their time on improving the existing Affordable Care Act, such as the so-called cadillac tax and addressing drug prices.

She also touted a measure she introduced earlier in April that would restore a repealed Federal Communication Commission rules designed to protect a person’s “sensitive” Internet data. Rosen said the bill was introduced shortly before the congressional recess, and believed it would gather bipartisan support.

“If you find me a person who wants less privacy, I’d love to talk to them, because most people want more privacy, and I don’t want that information sold where it could be sold by bad actors,” she said.

In her speech to lawmakers, Rosen stressed the need for bipartisanship in Washington and said she was committed to fighting the Trump administration on the revived proposal for a nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain and a budget proposing to take $230 million out of the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Account.

“I’m going to fight in every single way I can to get this funding restored,” she said during the speech.

She lauded legislators for approving the Equal Rights Amendment, and gave kudos to measures that would raise the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard and a measure from Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison that would prohibit the state from entering contracts with businesses that boycott Israel.

The freshman Democrat, who never ran for public office before defeating Republican candidate Danny Tarkanian in 2016, demurred on whether she’d be interested in running for a statewide race in 2018.

“I’ve only been there a few months, that’s what I’m focused on doing” she said. ”I’m just keeping my head down and doing my job.”

Watch the full interview with Rosen below:

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