20 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY OCTOBER 23-29, 2025 www.montereycountynow.com Financing and Tax Penalties on the U.S. Hostage Act—is basically two laws. One, it basically said that hostages abroad don’t have to pay taxes. Then it says that there’s an ability to stop U.S. organizations from supporting terrorist organizations overseas. This was a Democratic bill under a Democratic administration. In 2022, the Biden administration created the national terrorist fundraising risk assessment, which found that terrorist organizations have used nonprofits to support their activities. So Democrats and Republicans came together in the Ways and Means Committee to basically put this bill together. It was a bipartisan bill. It was voted a number of times on the House floor, and it passed overwhelmingly. The bill stayed the exact same, and President Trump then gets elected. And people were scared that he would then use this bill to then take away nonprofit status, which is very, very difficult to do, because there are certain standards to ensure this doesn’t happen—it’s well-defined in the IRS code. It can’t just happen willy-nilly. It has nothing, nothing, to do with my donations. It has nothing to do with AIPAC. They never contacted me once. Nobody contacted me on this bill. This was a bill that I had worked on in the Ways and Means Committee. It’s a bill that I had studied, that I know, and that’s why I supported it. The Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on the Israelis was horrific and did call for some sort of response. The question is, what should that response be? Do you agree with the majority of Americans that Israel has committed war crimes? I was part of the first Congressional delegation to go into Israel [after that], on Oct. 10, 2023. What I saw and what I felt from the victims’ families, who we had direct conversations with, was something that I will never forget. But looking at what has gone on in Gaza right now [just before the ceasefire was announced], it’s absolutely horrific. And it’s why I’ve continued to say that the war must stop. Your district is a Democratic stronghold. I won 69.5 percent [of the votes last election], but you got to realize they were not just Democrats. Many lifelong Democrats feel the party has failed at many levels to meet the urgency of this political moment. Why do you think voters should have faith in the party? The way this administration started put Democrats on our heels. We felt that, and that was very, very disturbing and very difficult, especially when we’re in the minority, where we don’t have that agency, we don’t have the bully pulpit. And so people are not getting that message that we’re continuing to send out about what Democrats stand for, when it comes to working families, when it comes to having a strong foreign policy, when it comes to protecting our democracy. So we’ve been doing it, and we’re continuing to push back. This administration is about being cruel and basically hurting people. That’s not what we stand for as a Democratic Party. That’s why we’re fighting so hard to protect our health care and to make sure that we push forward and get a budget that’s negotiated. I understand that the message and the messenger have not been well received. As a veteran who swore an oath to defend the Constitution and as a lawyer with an oath to follow the rules of law, could there be a time when you break with the party, perhaps, give up on the idea of bipartisan collaboration to solve it, and ultimately take actions that would even cost you re-election? I’ve been outspoken about this. I’m not here to get re-elected. If it gets to a constitutional crisis, you’re going to have to look at any and all of the ways out of this. And it’s not just going to take me. Let’s make that clear. Just like Prop. 50, it’s going to take the people. That’s what’s one of the great things about this country. We’re not just about one person. We actually have the people who are going to need to stand up and be a part of this. Does it keep you up at night? Oh, absolutely. There’s too many aspects about this job that keep me up at night. But this is a hard job. It looks like a thankless job. Right now, it’s tough. It can be very, very tough because no matter what you do, no matter what pieces of legislation you’ve passed—and I’ve got 30 bills signed into law—no matter the federal funding I’ve been able to bring into the district, no matter the good that we do, it’s a constant fight right now. But I’m not in this job to have fun. I’m in this job to be a part of the fight so that our constituents can relish this place that we live in without being able to be kept up at night on these questions that you’re asking me. Agricultural workers are the backbone of Monterey County’s agricultural economy. The same workers, many of them are undocumented, are being targeted by ICE. Any policies to support and safeguard these people and their families? This deportation policy by this administration is something that is unbelievably destructive when it comes to creating fear, it’s not just going after felons and gang members, which, as a former prosecutor, I’m OK with. But once you start broadening that net and sweeping up people based on their color, based on their location, based on what they look like, you’re not only hurting families in this community, you’re hurting our economy, you’re hurting our society, you’re hurting our humanity. We are continuing to push back, obviously, not just with potential legislation, because obviously that’s very difficult right now. But we have to continue to make sure that we do our part, and that is coming up with some sort of immigration reform. Look, this may sound outside the box, but I think if there is an opportunity for reasonable immigration reform, this president can do it. He’s got to understand, though, he’s got to get rid of Stephen Miller. I believe most of the impetus for this immigration policy and deportation policy, it’s coming from Stephen Miller. I think we can get immigration reform done. What I mean by that is we can secure a border, we can revamp our asylum system, and we need to provide the protections, not just to the men and women who are here working in agriculture construction, healthcare, hospitality, doing a lot of jobs that no American will do. We have to protect them. We always got to protect their families as well. We have to make sure that these people are allowed to come here, work here, contribute here, and continue to be a part of our community and society. What did you think of Pete Hegseth and President Trump’s speeches to the generals? That was the most humiliating thing I think I’ve experienced as a veteran. He’s standing in front of the most experienced military leadership in the world, giving such a misogynistic, horrific speech. The fact that they stood there, not just through his speech, but through the president’s—who got out of his military service based on bone spurs— That gives me hope. If there is a point where it comes to a constitutional crisis, if there is a point where it comes to him attempting to use our men and women in uniform for his personal services to overthrow our democracy, to fulfill his goals of having an autocracy, what I have faith in is not necessarily the Congress or the Senate. What I have faith in are the men and women in uniform, who understand that when they put on that uniform, it’s not to the president—it’s to the Constitution of the United States. That’s what gives me hope. Troops at the Defense Language Institute await a speech by then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in 2011 (above). As a veteran, Jimmy Panetta says he has faith in members of the armed forces to remember who they serve: “It’s not about the oath to [an individual], thank god. It’s about the oath to the Constitution.” BRADLEY ZEVE
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