Massachusetts' 7th Congressional District.

Please welcome to the show Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley.

Thank you so much for bein' here!

-Thank you, Seth!

It's great to be with you.

-You are spending quarantine with your husband;

your stepdaughter;

and you have a cat, a cat of note.

-Yes. Her name is Sojourner Truth Pressley Harris.

We call her Sojo.

She's got a mean resting feline face

and, you know, we love her.

She's great.

-She's a large cat, yes?

-Okay, now, watch it.

This is a body-positive household, okay?

-[ Laughing ] -I know that I showed her

to some of your producers and there was a little bit

of a reaction. She is fluffy.

-Okay gotcha. -She's got no problems.

Body-positive, okay? -Alright.

Understood, understood. -Alright.

-[ Laughs ] -She is exactly the cat

she is supposed to be.

-Exactly! Exactly.

We love her. -One of the things

the squad is addressing, the progressive wing

of the party is addressing -- I think, you know, in general,

everyone in the country should be addressing right now --

is the racial disparity

of how this pandemic is affecting this country

and that the inequality that was baked in before this

is what is leading to that.

How do you, one, address it now, in the moment,

in the middle of a crisis, while, at the same time,

trying to address the root causes of it,

to make sure it doesn't happen again?

-Yeah, the thing is the inequities

and racial disparities that we see playing out,

spotlighted and exacerbated during COVID-19,

have been systemically entrenched and embedded

for a very long time.

So, anecdotally, we already knew

how this would trend and how this would go.

And so, early on, myself and several of my colleagues

began banging the drum

for the collection of racial data in real time,

the disaggregation of it, the public reporting of it,

so that we can ensure that our public health response

is equitable, both in testing and access to treatment.

You know, here's the thing, is we started out behind.

We are in the worst position, ever, that you wanna be in,

in confronting a pandemic,

and that has everything to do with the criminal negligence,

the science denials, press briefings

that have really functioned more like disinformation campaigns,

and the sluggish response of this administration.

So we're behind.

And so data, and, particularly, racial data,

is one way that we get ahead of that,

so we ensure the resources follow the data

and they are directed to highest infection rates,

most vulnerable communities,

so we can do mobile testing, antibody testing,

contact tracing, and all of those things

that are in the best interest of the public health.

And then, after that, you know, I think

it's why we have to support our community health centers.

We have to address health disparities --

the comorbidities of structural racism,

the impact of climate injustices,

of food injustices.

That is why Black and Latinx communities,

which are food deserts; transportation deserts;

higher rates of asthma, because they disproportionately

bear the burden of environmental injustices;

have been more susceptible.

COVID-19 doesn't discriminate.

You know, anyone can contract the virus.

But these communities -- my community --

is most susceptible to contracting it

and, when we do, suffering the most severe consequences.

-You've talked about this as a crisis within a crisis

and, obviously, you know, Congress is having to address

so much that is going wrong right now.

Do you feel as though

Democratic leadership is being helpful addressing

sort of this angle of the situation we're in right now?

-Well, you know, myself, community members, activists,

and my colleagues, we're focused on putting the people first.

Not corporations, not private,

not profit, not corporations,

and focused on the acknowledging that this is unprecedented hurt.

This is a tsunami of hurt.

And experts recently said that, you know,

maybe 90% of these infections and fatalities

could've been stopped, had we acted sooner.

And so what I'll be focused on in upcoming relief packages is

"What do we do in the midst of this unprecedented hurt

that provides the most relief for people?"

And that's about getting cash in the pockets of people

as quickly as possible.

It's about more testing.

It's about canceling student debt,

canceling rent and mortgages.

It's about including our immigrant neighbors

who have been excluded today from every relief package.

It's about supports for our most vulnerable --

those experiencing homelessness and living in shelter,

and also incarcerated men and women.

And then, beyond that, I just want to say this --

the fact that we needed a moment like this

to prove to us who are essential workers.

They've always been essential

and they should've never been treated

as if they are disposable,

and that's how we've been functioning.

They should be working at a living wage.

We could've already addressed that.

We must do that in the future.

Having hazard pay, paid sick leave,

paid family and medical leave.

So the path forward is that we've gotta move boldly.

When people say they can't wait to be returned to normal,

normal, Seth, was unjust, insufficient,

and inadequate, to begin with,

so this is an opportunity, both in addressing

the racial disparities and in centering the humanity

and the dignity of every individual,

of every family, of every worker.

Then, we've gotta go bold.

Think about how we would've weathered this

if we already had universal healthcare,

if people were already working at a living wage,

if we already had universal paid sick leave

and paid family medical leave.