you only get to be one person. you don t know how long you have on this earth, and by the time i came back i realized, like, i got to i got to do something. were you sure at the time when you came out that it would cost you re-election? i was sure it was going to be a complication. i felt like things were going well in the city. i felt like i had done a good job of the people of south bend and i had some level of trust that i would be rewarded for that with a re-election, but there s no way to really know. there was no playbook. no executive in indiana had ever been out. and so it was kind of a leap of faith and i just, you know, i had i wrote it all down, put it in an op-ed, dropped it in the south bend tribune. and got re-elected with 80% of the vote. yeah. and you trust people, and in this case, they reciprocated that trust. that was more than i got elected in the first place. and so i guess it s one thing that gives me a lot of encouragement. don t get me wrong, there
public health issue more than even a political issue. public health issue, gun owners don t want guns to get in the wrong hands. universal background checks now make sense to me. and ultimately they make sense to the majority of americans. gun owner and not. let me ask you about immigration as well. i was struck you were asked about some of these same dynamic, some of these same changes over the course of your career in an interview on 60 minutes not long ago and essentially said you were embarrassed about your previous position on immigration. tell me about that. well, i don t think it was from my heart. i was calloused to the suffering of families who want to be with their loved ones, people who want to be reunited with their families. i recognize as we all do that immigration and diversity is our strength as a country and has always driven our economy. it s the american story. so looking back i just really regretted that i didn t look beyond my district and talk about why this
me over the top. i realize you only get to be one person. you don t know the how long you have on this earth. by the time i came, i realized i ve got to do something. were you sure at the time when you came out, it would cost you re-election? i was pretty sure it was going to be a big complication. i felt like things were going well in the city. i felt like had i done a good job by the people of south bend and i had some level of trust i would be rewarded for that with a re-election. there was no way to know, no executive in indiana had ever been out. so it was kind of a leap of faith. i had i wrote it down, put it in an op-ed. dropped into the south bend tribune and woke up and saw what happened. and got reelected with 80% of the vote. the there you go. you trust people and at least in this case, they reciprocated that trust. that was more than i got elected in the first place. so i guess it s one thing that gives me a lot of encouragement. don t get me wrong, there s
public health issue, gun owners don t want guns to get in the wrong hands. universal background checks now make sense to me. and ultimately they make sense to the majority of americans. gun owner and not. let me ask you about immigration, as well. i was struck, you were asked about some of these same dynamics, some of these same changes over the course of your career in an interview with 60 minutes not long ago, and you essentially said you were embarrassed about your previous position on immigration. tell me about that. well, i don t think it was from my heart. i was calloused to the suffering of families who want to be with their loved ones, people who want to be reunited with their families. i recognize, as we all do, that immigration and diversity is our strength as a country, it has always driven our economy. it s the american story. so, looking back, i really regretted that i didn t look beyond my district and talk about why this is an important part of the united states st
in red states for years, right? just say nothing is an undue burden. you have to pave the halls with gold, and that s okay. and that was a strategy that i think was going to work eventually at the supreme court when kavanaugh comes on the court. when alabama kind of jams the court like it did today and said here s this completely crazy ban that doesn t care at all about the welfare of women, that forces the court into a position that i don t think this court wants to be in. but you ve got ohio, and you ve got these other states that are pursuing the next best thing to what alabama did, which is the six-week bans. that s essentially a 90% abortion ban because went don t know they re pregnant at six weeks. all operating under the theory of the case i was laying out. they re all pushing, as guttmacher says, it s not that we haven t been seeing lots of abortion restrictions lately. we haven t seen abortion bans this complete. presumably that s because they think the kavanaugh court wants