Who?
Sen. Brian Schatz* (D-HI) — Commerce, Science, Transportation Committee
*running to replace retiring Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) as the Senate Democratic Whip (aka, #2 most powerful Democrat in the upper chamber)
LISTEN: Laslo & Schatz
Ask a Pol asks:
Are you worried stablecoin legislation may now be derailed because President Donald Trump and his family are profiting off digital currencies?
Key Schatz:
“What he's doing is already illegal, so we don't actually need a statute for that,” Sen. Brian Schatz exclusively told Ask a Pol. “I would say his corruption complicates the conversation for sure, but I am not one of these people who think we need to make a new law to reiterate that the existing laws shouldn’t be broken.”
ICYMI — Do or die time for stablecoin in Senate…
Caught our ear:
“The media has a tendency to treat corruption as way more interesting if they uncovered it, as opposed to it just hiding in plain sight,” Schatz told us.
Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), slightly edited for clarity.
TRANSCRIPT: Sen. Brian Schatz (5-14-2025)
SCENE: Ask a Pol’s Matt Laslo runs into Sen. Brian Schatz as he’s making his way through the basement of the US Capitol before the two hop an elevator together and run into — literally — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and her staffer.
Brian Schatz: “What he's doing is already illegal.”
Matt Laslo: “Yeah?”
BS: “So we don't actually need a statute for that.”
ML: “Yeah? But now…”
BS: “I would say his corruption complicates the conversation for sure.”
ML: “Yeah?”
BS: “But I am not one of these people who think we need to make a new law to reiterate that the existing laws shouldn’t be broken.”
ICYMI — Laslo first used this interview in below feature
ML: “Do you worry that in this second Trump administration the graft is just more accepted?”
BS: “Oh yeah. I think that the media has a tendency to treat corruption as way more interesting if they uncovered it, as opposed to it just hiding in plain sight.”
ML: “Fair.”
Schatz laughs.
ML: “Right? Does that…”
Schatz and Laslo hop an elevator with Sen. Richard Blumenthal and another reporter.
BS: “I mean, his answer on the Qatar plane is, like, what, ‘You don’t like free stuff?’”
ML: “Right?”
BS: “It's very wild.”
ML: “And they take it.”
BS: “Yeah, so….”
ML: “Does it feel like you guys have changed that narrative this week though?”
BS: “Yeah, because I think people can picture in their mind Air Force One that's sponsored by Qatar is pretty gross.”
They exit the elevator.
ML: “Yeah? And then now — like just watching CNN last night and them putting up all the Trump real estate in the Middle East that wasn't there a few years ago.”
BS: “Yeah, it's all — and so the Washington Post characterized this trip as about business.”
ML: “Yeah?”
BS: “That is a euphemism.”
ML: “Yeah?”
Just off the Senate floor there’s a lot of traffic, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren giving a tour to a new summer intern.
BS: “It's his business. It's not America and economic opportunity for the United States…”
Warren aide: “I’m sorry.”
ML: “It’s okay.”
Elizabeth Warren: “She’ll take you out.”
ML: “Oh, I know it.”
EW: “She looks small…”
ML: “I don't mess with your office, ma'am.”
Laslo turns back to Sen. Schatz as he’s making his way onto the Senate floor.
ML: “Yeah. Good point, sir. Thank you.”
EW: “Senator Graham...”
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