The Democrat has represented the 1st Massachusetts congressional district since 1989. He spoke in town hall after a press conference announcing a million-dollar federal earmark for Lee’s new public safety facility. Asked about Tuesday’s debate between vice presidential candidates Governor Tim Walz and Senator JD Vance, Neal downplayed the significance of the event.
“I watched the whole thing, and I’ve known Tim Walz for a long time, and I thought that the debate showed the vigor of where we find ourselves," he said. "I thought it was pretty interesting that people say the two vice presidential candidates are going to debate, and the two vice presidential candidates spent the evening talking about the respective presidential candidate of the other party. So, in terms of outcome, I think media have a tendency to try to declare winners and losers, and I thought last night, I don't think it moves the needle much one way or another. I thought the presidential debate was entirely different. I thought even Republicans said they thought that the vice president won the debate. I think what was noteworthy about it for all of us, it didn't move the needle.”
During the debate, Walz echoed the Democratic Party’s increasingly moderating stance on immigration ahead of the election. He characterized the deal that former President Trump helped scuttle in January as the “fairest and the toughest bill on immigration that this nation's seen.” While the bipartisan bill was largely brokered by Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, Walz specifically identified James Lankford of Oklahoma as its crafter. The governor described Lankford – an anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, pro-government surveillance Republican who has questioned the validity of the 2020 election – as “a man of principle, [who] wants to get it done.”
It included hundreds of millions of dollars for a southern border wall, which Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris decried as “un-American” during the Trump era. Asked about that by WAMC, Neal said his party’s immigration policy hadn’t drifted toward the right so much as it’s drifted toward reality.
“So, I think there ought to be a period using green cards, we use them all the time, and then subsequently applying for citizenship," he said. "So, what Joe Biden has done, to his credit, is he has said that he would make some alterations in the asylum process. And I think the positions that the president has outlined have been entirely reasonable. I also think that when you start to suggest that in Springfield, Ohio, that people are kidnapping cats and dogs for dinner, that ill serves the national conversation for two reasons. Number one, it's not true, and not to denigrate overall, the role that immigrants play in American life. Let me quote a champion of immigration, Ronald Reagan, who fervently believed, as George Bush Sr., believed, and as George Bush Jr. believed, on the Republican side, that they make a contribution every single day to America. The problem is you need to know who's in the country and how they arrive."
Neal was also asked about the dire situation in the Middle East, now that Israel’s war with Hamas has expanded to a new front in southern Lebanon, including the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last month. American leaders have pledged support for Israel even while saying a war with Iran should be avoided.
“Well, I think the President handled that correctly," he answered. "I think that with the assassination of Nasrallah, I think that it was pretty clear he was responsible for the killing of hundreds of innocent Americans, and I thought that the response from Israel in that instance was the appropriate one. I also think that the President is correct in saying that we all desire a ceasefire, and Iran continues to be a renegade nation. I thought that our assistance that we offered in taking down those missiles was part of the Iron Dome theory, and I would also say that proportional responses are really important here, and I think that Joe Biden's got his finger on the pulse of opinion in that part of the world. We've also committed, as you know, additional troops and naval aircraft that is moving into that part of the world as well. So, it's tension filled, there's no doubt about it. We would all prefer that it be deescalated in short order. If you use the recent example of what happened, where there was a back and forth, Iran responded, the missiles were shot down, and then that was it. It was more muted. So, we're going to have to wait and see in the next 48, 72 hours if this escalates or not. And Israel's decision to invade southern Lebanon after Hezbollah, there's no question that that is a change of strategy.”
As at Neal’s June appearance in Lenox, WAMC asked the long-tenured representative if he intends to hold his first constituent town hall in the Berkshires since 2017 before November’s election.
“Well, I think it would be a bit difficult," the congressman said. "I am now pretty much obligated to helping out the vice president, and we've made those commitments, and we've made them now for the last four or five months. Yeah, yeah. And we're going to be, I hope, some of the – Williamstown and Rowe and places like that – for similar get togethers, I hope in the next couple of weeks, but certainly out to Worcester County. That'll be part of it, and Hampden, Hampshire counties as well.”
Neal faces a challenge from independent anti-corporate candidate Nadia Milleron of Sheffield.
