Today, Raw America managing editor Carl Gibson sat down with Congressman George Whitesides (D-Calif.), whose district covers northern parts of Los Angeles County. Whitesides is a first-term Democrat seeking a second term this November. Before running for Congress, Whitesides was chief of staff at NASA during the Barack Obama administration, and he now sits on the House Armed Services Committee and the Science, Space, and Technology Committee. That puts him at the vanguard of two major fights over artificial intelligence: how the technology is built, and how the Pentagon is using it. Gibson and Whitesides covered various topics, including:
His op-ed urging a 30-day “stand-down” on AI development
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, his new “Autonomous War Command” at the Pentagon, and the threat AI-powered “killer robots” pose
Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie’s articles of impeachment against Hegseth, and Mike Johnson’s early recess to avoid voting on them
His call for federal investigations into Trump’s taxpayer-funded propaganda
How a Democratic-controlled House of Representatives could still hold Trump accountable even though he’s still in the White House
His new bill to protect kids from AI chatbots designed to manipulate them
The growing nationwide backlash against AI data centers
The Need for an Industry-Wide ‘Stand-Down’ of AI Development
Gibson began the conversation by asking Whitesides about his recent Washington Post op-ed calling for a month-long “stand-down” of frontier AI development. Whitesides drew on his prior experience as NASA’s chief of staff, in which he sometimes had to order a mission “stand-down” for safety reasons. He argued that AI companies should pause all frontier model development for 30 days to prevent an “artificial intelligence catastrophe.” Gibson asked whether 30 days was long enough.
“Are we going to work out everything in one month? Of course not, right?” Whitesides said. “But having a pause where people take that seriously, the frontier models do not advance for that period of time, and then we have an opportunity to get all the right experts in a room, and it can’t just be the people from the companies.”
The congressman blasted President Donald Trump for downplaying concerns about AI as a hoax, and is urging the government to seek the expertise of independent authorities from academia and the public sector — including agencies like NASA — to set binding “red lines” for the AI industry. Without them, he argued, companies will continue to rapidly develop AI in an “arms race” with their domestic competitors.
“You have one company doing one thing, another company doing another thing, and they have to get on the same page,” Whitesides said. “That’s not right for the safety of our country. It’s not right for the safety of our kids, and we’ve got to do better.”
The Threat of AI-Powered ‘Killer Robots’
Gibson then pointed to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recent “State of the Force” speech at Quantico, where the he announced the launch of an “Autonomous War Command” to incorporate AI in every branch of the military. He then asked Whitesides if his committees plan to haul Hegseth and other top Pentagon officials before Congress if Democrats win back subpoena power in November.
“The short answer to your question is absolutely yes,” Whitesides said, “although I’m hoping that Secretary Hegseth is no longer in his position by the time that happens. I think he has been an unmitigated disaster for the Department of Defense.”
The California Democrat reminded viewers that he also sits on the Armed Services subcommittee that oversees the Pentagon’s AI work — the Cyber, IT and Innovation Subcommittee — and that he’s already introduced a bill alongside his colleagues who want to keep a close eye on how the DoD uses artificial intelligence.
“Here’s the thing that everybody’s worried about: killer robots,” Whitesides said. “Whether it’s a drone or it’s a craft or whatever different things that we have, killer robots, we have got to have a national conversation about this before we deploy these things willy-nilly.”
Whitesides went on to state that he has “absolutely no confidence that Secretary Hegseth is the right guy to lead that conversation.” He added that because the Pentagon is so large, its choices about AI will inevitably shape how this technologies spreads domestically among the American public.
Why SpeakerJohnson Sent lawmakers Home Early
As part of the discussion about Hegseth, Gibson brought up Republican Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky’s articles of impeachment against Hegseth, which led to Johnson gaveling the House of Representatives out of session early. He then asked if there are enough Republicans willing to break with Trump and impeach Hegseth, given the level of anger over the ongoing Iran war and the firings of top generals and admirals.
Whitesides confirmed the early adjournment was a direct response to Massie’s impeachment resolution. He also observed that the speaker is under significant pressure given that the impeachment measure was expected to pass.
“People are so pissed off by what’s happening in Iran and with our military, the politicization of our military, which is the finest fighting force in the world, that I think he was worried that there would be enough Republicans who would vote for it,” Whitesides said.
The first-term Democrat also said Johnson sought to protect vulnerable Republicans in swing districts, who Whitesides said know that voting to keep Hegseth “would be yet another reason why people would be willing to throw them out on November 3.”
Whitesides also said that he couldn’t predict the outcome, the reckoning is coming at some point.
“It’s going to be the first vote when we come back,” he said.
Trump’s ‘Bats**t Crazy’ Taxpayer-Funded Propaganda Spots
This week, Whitesides co-signed a letter with Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland — ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee — asking both the Government Accountability Office and the Office of Special Counsel (which is separate from the Department of Justice) to investigate Donald Trump’s taxpayer-funded TV ads. Gibson compared the ads to North Korean-style propaganda and quipped that he just made a quarterly tax payment because Trump needed the money to run ads. He then asked the congressman what proper accountability would look like.
“Let’s be clear: people of both parties should be mad about these ads,” Whitesides said. “They’re taking your tax dollars and spending it on ads for his personal hero-worship weird thing that he’s got going on.”
“They are bats**t crazy,” he added, calling the ads “blatantly illegal.”
He explained that he and Raskin decided to petition the GAO and the Office of Special Counsel to investigate the ads because “we can’t count on the DOJ to do the right thing anymore.” The congressman accused the Trump administration of violating both appropriations law and the Hatch Act — which prohibits using an official government office to conduct partisan political activity — with the ad campaign. And while the president himself may be exempt from the Hatch Act, Whitesides said the people who produced the ads and reserved TV time are not.
“We need to see accountability for the people around the president who went along with it, and we need to see real penalties for the folks who did it,” the California Democrat said. “This is, of course, just another example of the administration knowing that something is illegal and still doing it.”
How a Democratic Congress Can Hold the Trump Administration Accountable
At that point in the conversation, Gibson noted that even if Democrats win back control of both chambers of Congress in November, Trump will still hold the veto pen, his appointees will still run federal agencies and the 6-3 conservative majority Supreme Court will still favor the administration. He then asked the congressman how Americans can be assured that a new Democratic majority can pursue accountability for the Trump administration.
Whitesides said Democrats’ plan is twofold: first, a Democratic majority would have the ability to stop Trump’s legislative agenda dead in its tracks. Then, they could offer their own vision for the country that’s laser-focused on addressing the affordability of essential basic needs like healthcare, food, childcare and housing.
“We are going to set out a proactive agenda to show what a government that is responsible and responsive to the people looks like,” Whitesides said. He added that the House Armed Services Committee is a “target-rich environment” where Democrats can issue subpoenas to investigate “thousands of examples of wrongdoing across the administration.”
He did, however, acknowledge that there are limits of oversight given that Trump still controls the Justice Department until January of 2029.
“I don’t have any faith, to be perfectly frank, in Trump’s Department of Justice,” he said. “But we can produce that evidence. We can send it to the appropriate regulators. Perhaps some of these regulators will do the right thing.”
How to Stop Manipulative AI Chatbots from Taking Advantage of Kids
On the same day as this interview, Whitesides introduced a bill aimed at protecting children from AI chatbots. Gibson called the issue uniquely important, and brought up examples of chatbots encouraging minors who were contemplating violence or suicide to go through with their plans.
Whitesides said that as the parent of a 14-year-old daughter and a 16-year-old son, he and his wife were “in the thick of it” when it came to the prevalence of AI in children’s lives. He said today’s parents are forced to be “guidance counselor, IT administrator, all these jobs rolled into one” just to try and their kids safe.
Whitesides explained that his bill focuses on companies that use textbook emotional manipulation to keep kids engaged with their product.
“They are trying to use techniques like, ‘Don’t go away too long, I’ll miss you,’ and other emotional taglines that get kids hooked,” the congressman said. “I don’t think anyone could disagree that that is just plain evil.”
The bill would not only ban emotionally manipulative design, but would also require chatbots to recognize when they are talking to minors, and impose other protections to strengthen safety for children. Whitesides said that part of his inspiration for writing the bill was meeting with grieving families, who convinced him that simply filing lawsuits against the companies behind the technology was not enough.
“I have talked to parents of kids who have committed suicide after they’ve had extensive engagements with these toxic chatbots, and they just rip your heart out,” Whitesides said. “We cannot rely just purely on product liability. It is our responsibility as legislators to get in front of this.”
How Data Centers Became One of the Biggest Issues in the Midterms
Gibson focused his last question on AI data centers, pointing out that they’ve become a major flashpoint in the midterms. He observed that Republican Senator Jon Husted of Ohio has been labeled as the “face of data centers” by his Democratic opponent, former Senator Sherrod Brown, which led him to sponsor legislation called the “Ratepayers Protection Act.”
That bill passed the House with just three “no” votes, with Whitesides casting his vote with the majority. Senate Democrats went on to block it, calling the bill a “toothless” measure that doesn’t include any legally binding language forcing developers to actually do anything about runaway utility costs. Gibson asked whether Whitesides had changed his position.
Whitesides didn’t address his vote on the bill directly, but talked instead about the real concerns Americans have about data centers and Donald Trump’s casual dismissal of the communities pushing back against them.
“I’m concerned about air pollution in my neighborhood. I’m concerned about noise pollution. I’m concerned about water use in my home, and of course, I’m concerned about energy costs,” Whitesides said, recounting concerns of local residents. “Those are not hoaxes, Mr. President. Those are real concerns of everyday Americans from all political parties from every state in this country.”
He also acknowledged that local communities are being shut out of the development process as various state legislatures hand out “fat tax breaks” to data center developers. He then said Congress has the responsibility to give communities real power when it comes to whether data centers get built.
“It may be that there’s a community out there that wants to have this, and values the tax revenue,” Whitesides said. “If that community decides that that’s right for them, that should be their prerogative. What I am opposed to is ramming these data centers into places where the people don’t want them.”
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