In the News
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., entered the debate over giving the COVID-19 vaccines as a single dose and delaying a second dose, urging President Joe Biden's administration to consider a new vaccine strategy to get more doses out to Americans.
A prominent House Democrat slammed Robinhood's move to restrict trading on some stocks like Gamestop and endorsed the idea of holding a congressional hearing on the popular trading app's decision.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a leading member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said there was "visceral anger" at hedge funds for their role propelling economic inequality in the United States.
"Everyone on Robinhood should have equal access for trading," Khanna said in an interview with Insider. "They can't just shut down trading for retail investors and not hedge funds."
Progressive Congressman Ro Khanna on Wednesday cautioned President Joe Biden and the Democratic leadership against further restricting eligibility for any future round of direct coronavirus relief payments, warning that excluding many struggling middle-class Americans from checks would be misguided and politically disastrous.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) laid out a few specific policies he and some of Congress' other leading progressives are likely to demand when the next U.S. Congress begins its term.
The big picture: Khanna wants Congress to deliver more direct aid to Americans in the form of $2,000 monthly checks and to provide $1 trillion over 10 years in loans and grants to small businesses but is also taking aim at the Fed, arguing that the central bank has gone astray of its original intent to help small businesses and community banks.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said during an Axios virtual event that the Federal Reserve Board needs to be able to give loans in rural and minority communities, which have been some of the most affected during the coronavirus pandemic.
Why it matters: People in rural and minority communities have been disproportionally impacted by the coronavirus.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat representing California's Silicon Valley in the U.S. House of Representatives, said he doesn't think impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump will interfere with Democrats' economic agenda once President-elect Biden takes office.
"Having accountability, I think, will help this country actually heal. And then we have the rest of the time to pursue President Biden's agenda," Khanna said in an interview with "Marketplace Morning Report" host David Brancaccio.
Rep. Ro Khanna of California is a third-term progressive Democrat in the House who has made a name for himself as a strident opponent of the US government's interminable support for the "forever wars" — the numerous military actions that have gone on for years without congressional approval.
Khanna spoke with Insider columnist Anthony Fisher by phone on Friday, less than 48 hours after the deadly insurrection by Trump supporters on the Capitol during the Electoral College certification proceedings.
The following interview has been edited for style, length, and clarity.
Just 20 House Democrats opted to break with their party and their Republican counterparts late Monday to vote against overriding President Donald Trump's veto of the National Defense Authorization Act, a sprawling bill that greenlights over $740 billion in military spending for fiscal year 2021.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), one the few House Democrats who voted against overriding the president's NDAA veto, applauded his colleagues for having "the courage tonight to vote no on the bloated defense budget."
Government is supposed to help people in need, not abandon them to their fates. But that's not what's happening here in the increasingly Dickensian United States, where both hunger and the shoplifting of basic necessities are on the rise, and the unemployed live in increasing despair.
"It's unconscionable what's taking place," says Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).