VN San Diego sat down with Democratic Rep. Scott Peters at our studios for a wide-ranging interview that focused on the County Board of Supervisors 3-1 vote on SB-54, the DACA debate where Peters thought a vote on the dreamers could come in May, finding common ground with President Trump, and a chance that he could run for mayor in 2020.

Video Interview

Listen to the Podcast

We sat down with Congressman Peters to discuss these and other subjects in greater detail on our Podcast:

On Common Ground with President Trump

The one thing Rep. Peters agreed with President Trump on, was his blocking of the Broadcom acquisition of Qualcomm. I asked Rep. Peters about that but also why it seems so few political leaders and business leaders came to the defense of Qualcomm during that takeover bid?

“I can’t speak for other people, I know that Duncan Hunter and I saw the national security angle and wanted to push that. It wasn’t just us, Senator John Cornyn… Senator he’s from Texas he was a big supporter of Qualcomm, a coalition of defense minded Republicans and house members led by Gallagher in Wisconsin, who were concerned about 5G not being researched here on American shores.”

Are you concerned about the health of Qualcomm?

“I am. The company’s under a lot of pressure to generate profits now, that’s the inherent problem with leaving research to corporations, public corporations are under a lot of pressure to generate quarter to quarter profits to generate income for shareholders, I understand they promised Wall Street to cut a lot of expenses and hopefully those expenses do not impact long-term research.”

County Board of Supervisors Action on SB-54

“I think it’s out of step. I thought our County Board of Supervisors was moving away from that, credit to Greg Cox for what I thought was the right thing, We really need comprehensive immigration reform at the federal level, it’s not up to San Diego Police Department and County Sheriff’s to enforce the current law.”

Privacy Rights and California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018

“Protecting the consumer makes sense. Consumers value this ability to connect with people and they make a trade so they give up some of their data and they post these things in public and I think people get that, what they don’t get is there is manipulation of data that they’re giving behind the scenes that they have an expectation of privacy, we ought to delineate that for consumers so they can make that choice. I think empowering the consumer is the right way to go and I had this conversation with Mr. Zuckerberg when he came to our committee and I said I think the role of the government should be if you screw up and release this information we’re entrusting you to safeguard you should pay a financial penalty. That penalty would be the subject for legislative hearings.”

Mayor Peters???

“I’m running for reelection, being in Congress is a great honor for me, I’m so proud to represent San Diego in the United States Congress. Obviously the mayor’s position comes open when the Kevin is termed out in 2020 and I’ve dedicated my whole life to San Diego so course I would consider that, I think first things first though and one election at a time, but I’ve been talking to people about it, it’s been brought up. You know I certainly would prefer the commute.”