Cortez Masto in Semafor: “I am someone who is not shying from a fight. But I also think that you have to be strategic and you have to get things done.”
Washington, D.C. – Following a debate over passage of legislation to support law enforcement in Nevada and nationwide, U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) has continued to share how she and her Democratic colleagues can be effective legislators while pushing back against the Trump Administration’s attempts to hurt the American people.
Originally, Senator Cortez Masto tried to pass seven bills to support law enforcement officers, but her motion was objected to. The Senator successfully pushed both her Chief Herbert D. Proffitt Act and the Improving Police CARE Act to pass the Senate.
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“This isn’t about attacking Democrats,” Cortez Masto said of her push. “I come from a state where people just want common-sense legislation. They want people to work together, pass legislation that’s going to benefit everyone.”
Don’t confuse her words with Joe Manchin-style accommodation. Cortez Masto is critical of the president’s tariff policies and savages many Trump nominees who earned bipartisan support, arguing that they say one thing behind the scenes and do another in office.
Asked if people in Nevada want Democrats to fight Trump, she replied: “Absolutely. And we should be.” She said Trump’s tariffs and rhetoric on Canada were seriously harming Nevada’s entertainment and tourism industry.
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[Cortez Masto]: “I don’t need lectures from anyone on how to push back and fight this administration. I’ve been doing it since I got to the Senate, because I won my Senate race in 2016 and Donald Trump won at the same time. I’m also from a swing state; I’ve still got to get stuff done on behalf of my state.
Why would you throw out good legislation that’s going to benefit everyone across the country? That doesn’t make sense. We still have to have a functioning government. That’s part of gaining the trust of Americans again, so they understand there are people that are working on their behalf.
But most importantly, we have to win.”
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The state of the economy, public safety and health care are among the issues dominating conversations with constituents in her home state of Nevada, Cortez Masto said. Some small-business owners fear closing or facing debilitating losses due to Trump’s tariffs, grocery prices haven’t relented, and gas prices — nearly $4 a gallon in the Reno area — are still too high (though lower than their peak in 2022), she added.
“Yes, we want to fight Trump and push back on him and hold him accountable and take him on,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean at the same time we are doing that we are stopping and harming the people in our states.”
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Ms. Cortez Masto, in closing, offered the flip side of the argument.
“I’m not sure the answer here is to stop bipartisan legislation that gives tools to law enforcement across the community to keep our communities safe,” she said, adding that all Americans, regardless of political affiliation, want 911 to respond to an emergency call.
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