Who?
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) — Chair, Senate Finance Committee
LISTEN: Laslo & Wyden
Ask a Pol asks:
What’s the path forward for cannabis descheduling?
Key Wyden:
“These are fundamentally privacy issues. I was the first senator to be for marriage equality. I said, ‘If you don't like gay marriage, don't get one,’” Sen. Wyden exclusively tells Ask a Pol. “And these are privacy issues and personal liberty questions, and I think, that's why I said for Republicans, that's their wheelhouse. That's what they say is their wheelhouse.”
Is the leadership on board?
“Those are the things: we've got to right wrongs and we ought to deschedule,” Sen. Wyden tells us. “Those are the two things that I'm pushing for, and the Majority Leader [Chuck Schumer] and Sen. [Cory] Booker — we all three of us agree.”
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ICYMI — Ask a Pol’s exclusive w/ Rep. Barbara Lee
Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), slightly edited for clarity.
TRANSCRIPT: Sen. Ron Wyden
SCENE: After speaking at a 420 presser on the House side of the US Capitol, Wyden quietly ducks out and heads back to his Senate office.
Matt Laslo: “You’re quick. How are you doin’, sir?”
Ron Wyden: “Okay, what’s up?”
Wyden Aide 1: “You have the long legs to walk. That pace!”
ML: “Right?”
Wyden Aide 2: “Tall guys.”
ML: “It’s tall-guy club.”
Wyden always says ‘tall-guy club.’
RW: “Yeah.”
ML: “So what do you see as the path forward? Like, the Senate schedule is getting pretty packed?”
RW: “The first thing everybody needs to know is big stuff has got to take a big effort. The clean energy tax credits that I authored is now well over the predictions. Y’know, probably, business, think tanks think it could be five, six hundred billion dollars. It took me 10 years after [Sen.] Joe Manchin invited me to West Virginia where we worked out the, y’know, the fundamental principles. So we're thinking this is the time and the arguments — were you there when I was talking?”
ML: “Yes, sir.”
RW: “Those are the arguments: Deschedule because it gets the federal government out of people's lives. I don't know if you know — I think I once said it to Rolling Stone — you're still with Rolling Stone, aren't you?”
ML: “No, I divorced them. I’m WIRED magazine, but I’m all over. I got my own publication.”
RW: “These are fundamentally privacy issues. I was the first senator to be for marriage equality. I said, ‘If you don't like gay marriage, don't get one.’ And these are privacy issues and personal liberty questions, and I think, that's why I said for Republicans, that's their wheelhouse. That's what they say is their wheelhouse.”
ML: “Do you see — because there's even opposition within your party to this — do you think, I mean, it seems to me like [Senate Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer and the administration are fine just never having a floor vote, tweaking it around the edges, which wouldn't include expungement.”
RW: “The most important thing I said is, ‘Political change starts at the grassroots.’ And look at the voters that are logging in on it. I was just told this morning in Colorado, since they legalized use by young people went down because of legalization. So, those are the stories we've got to get out.”
ML: “And expungement. How would — I don't really hear that as part of the conversation. I mean you brought it up there but…”
RW: “Those are the things: we've got to right wrongs and we ought to deschedule. Those are the two things that I'm pushing for — and the Majority Leader [Schumer] and Sen. [Cory] Booker, we all three of us agree.”
ML: “I'll be watching, as always. Preciate ya. Have a good one y'all.”
Matt Laslo’s a veteran congressional correspondent, new media prof. & founder of Ask a Pol — a new, people-powered press corps.
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Wyden on marijuana: "These are privacy issues and personal liberty questions"