Mia Love, the first black Republican woman in Congress, represented her district in Utah from 2015 to 2019. She joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to discuss her perspective on the riots and violence over the summer, how the unrest has affected America, and her views of the Black Lives Matter organization.

We also cover these stories:

  • FBI Director Christopher Wray, in a congressional hearing, says Antifa is no joke. 
  • About 790,000 Americans apply for unemployment for the first time, according to the Labor Department’s latest monthly report.
  • President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, takes issue with the timeline outlined for the coronavirus vaccine by Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Rachel del Guidice: I’m joined today on “The Daily Signal Podcast” by Mia Love, the first [black] Republican woman in Congress who represented the state of Utah from 2015 to 2019. Rep. Love, it’s great to have you with us on “The Daily Signal Podcast.”

Mia Love: Thank you, Rachel. I’m happy to be here.

Del Guidice: Well, as everyone is well aware, the past few months in this country have been full of unrest. There have been ongoing riots in Portland and riots in Chicago and Minneapolis after the death of George Floyd. Representative Love, what is your perspective on the riots and the violence we’ve seen this summer?

Love: Well, first of all, the death of George Floyd and so many others, by the way, who have died the way they have without being afforded their unalienable rights, … it’s heartbreaking, and it’s a wake-up sign for all Americans to stand up and pay attention and not just ignore what’s happening, but say, “What can I do? What can I do to be better to my neighbor? What can I do to make a change? What can I do to instill again in this country civility and respect for one another?”

And at least let people know that we are citizens of the United States of America, and there are other people out there that want to see us harm. So we need to do whatever we can to band together, especially on issues of violence.

Unfortunately, it hasn’t been answered with, I would say, a collective unity, a collective thought of making things better. It’s been answered with more violence and I just can’t help but to think about Martin Luther King, [who] said you cannot answer darkness with darkness. You cannot answer hate with hate.

Unfortunately, that is what’s happening right now, and it’s certainly not something that I wish to have my children look at as examples of what we should be doing in this country to heal one another.

Del Guidice: Well, violence, as many or all know, spread to Kenosha, Wisconsin, after Jacob Blake, … a 29-year-old man [who] was shot multiple times by police on Aug. 23.

There’s also the additional situation of Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old charged with the death of two men he shot during the riots, and his lawyers say that was done in self-defense.

As more context comes out on these two incidents, can you give us your perspective on all that’s been happening there?

Love: I think every situation is going to be different. Police officers are not perfect and people are not perfect. You have to understand that police officers are enforcers. They are enforcing a law, and sometimes they don’t behave in the best interest of the community, of their job, or even the person that they are pursuing.

I think that there are things we have to ask each other. One is, I think police should ask themselves, “How would I want another police officer to behave if it were my daughter, if it were my wife, if it were my son, if it were my neighbor?” And approach someone that way.

On the other hand, I have to say that Americans, most Americans, black Americans, that I know of at least, they don’t want to defund police. They need police in their neighborhoods. A lot of them.

I know this as a mayor because I actually implemented community policing. We were policed by a county and I felt like I needed a police department that was from my city, lives in my city and among the neighbors in my city, because of issues like this. … I think that the solution to all of this is implementing neighborhood policing, community policing.

If your police officers are growing up in the same place and they’re becoming role models to the people that they are enforcing the law with, there’s going to be a completely different environment. I think that that’s one of the solutions that we’re missing here.

These young black men that are growing up into these neighborhoods, it would be so nice if they could become police officers themselves so that they can look after their own neighborhoods and look and say, “I can be a great influence in the place that I live. I can make a difference that way.”

Del Guidice: Representative Love, that was actually one of my next questions about your perspective on the “defund the police” movement, so thank you for that added perspective there.

As a mother, what would you say to parents and families, especially those with small businesses, who have had their livelihoods impacted as a result of the rioting we’ve seen?

Love: I would say, one, don’t answer the violence with violence. It’s absolutely inappropriate.

Anyone who claims that a life matters to them, whether it’s a black life or a white life or Hispanic life or an American life, I would say stand up, continue to be a positive influence, rebuild your business. There are people that are with you. There are more people that are with you than are against you.

I would also say to anybody out there, if you’re going to fix something, if you’re going to make a difference, violence isn’t the way to do it. You don’t build something by destroying another. Destruction just breeds destruction.

If you really care about the issue, if you really care about these lives, these lives that were lost, it’s very important lives, then the best thing that you can do is stand up, help support another neighbor, build somebody up, and maybe even sponsor a kid in your neighborhood. Do something productive.

Del Guidice: As racial tensions have been really high this summer, we’ve talked a little bit about that, how would you say America can heal and are there changes? And if so, what would they be?

Love: I would say, one, you can’t heal by driving a wedge to other Americans. You can’t do that. Good friend of mine, Sen. Tim Scott, had some great ideas on police reform.

If you really care about the issue, if you really care, then you have to be able to do that. You have to be able to reach across the aisle, even if it’s a person, even if it happens to be a Republican or Democrat, reach across the aisle and say, “OK, there are some things that we can change here.”

But I also believe that it’s important for us to make sure that we reach out to the neighborhoods because every single neighborhood is going to be completely different in how they implement policing policies.

People like Sen. Tim Scott, who’ve been doing such great work, who have … grown up in neighborhoods like this that have seen these types of situations unfold that are taking away people’s rights and them not having a voice, people like Tim Scott, he’s a wonderful member of Congress, a good friend of mine. And don’t allow the issue to overshadow the solution.

I think it’s really important that people like him actually get a good platform and provide some solutions to this very important issue.

Del Guidice: As we look at the broader conversation in the country, what is your perspective on the Black Lives Matter organization as an organization?

Love: Well, that’s difficult because on its forefront, black lives matter, yeah, of course black lives matter. I’m married to a white man. My children are biracial. They have different mixes in them. They have a little bit of Hispanic, their lives matter. American lives matter.

So the organization, if you read the platform, the reason why I have a really hard time getting behind this organization is because it’s more than just about protecting communities. There are some issues when it comes to, like, nuclear families, and saying that the community can raise children better than individuals. If you just read the platform, it goes beyond what’s happening in black communities.

So I would actually suggest that everyone goes in and read the platform, and if that’s something that you agree to, then great.

But I certainly, I am a pro-life mom. I am a mother that believes that parents, no matter what that looks like to you, parents have the best interest in raising their children and know how to raise their children better than any government entity can. So those are my beliefs, they’re my core beliefs. So that’s what I’m going to stick with.

Del Guidice: We’ve talked a little bit about policing, the defund police movement. On that note, there’s a new poll from Monmouth University that found that nearly two-thirds, which is 65%, of Americans, say that maintaining law and order is a major problem in the country right now. Do you think this issue is a growing trend?

Love: I think it will continue to be a growing trend only because the way we’re going about it as a community is not working and it’s not good.

I mean, again, … you’re not going to find departments that are absolutely perfect. Should there be reforms in some areas, should there be reforms in places where George Floyd … lost his life? Absolutely, and we can all stand behind that and we should, because what happened to him was horrendous, and others—I don’t want to miss out on so many other young men and women that have lost their lives.

But if we’re going to continue to solve the problem with violence, it’s going to continue to grow. … We’re going to see a divide, not just between races, but between Americans, police officers, you name it, and it’s going to destroy this country.

If you look at it, there are enemies that are outside of this country that are looking at us and they are happy. This is exactly what they want and we cannot allow them to do this.

We must remember that just like the neighbors next door, just like our friends down the street, we all live in the same country and we have to be able to protect our interests in our country so that we don’t become weaker and become vulnerable to these other countries that want to see us harmed.

This is exactly what a Putin wants. It’s exactly what a Kim Jong Un wants. This is exactly what a terrorist regime in Iran wants. The way that we keep each other sound and our country strong is by realizing that we’re all Americans and we need to do what’s in the best interest of all of our citizens.

Del Guidice: As we look at everything that has happened over the past couple of months, as we’ve discussed, what would you say Americans have lost sight of the most during this time?

Love: We’re debating right now when it comes to presidential elections, when it comes to any election, whether it’s Senate candidates or House candidates, we’re debating personalities.

Again, like my friend Tim Scott said, some people prefer the issue than they do the solution and we have to look at that and ask ourselves, is this the best person to represent my views?

So what we’ve lost sight of is we lost sight of debating the policies that instill freedom in this country, that maintains freedom. We’ve forgotten about the Constitution of the United States of America, that document that keeps us safe, keeps us from rulers being kings over us.

If we just remember the Constitution and just remember that we’re citizens of the United States and that we are one nation under God, then I think that we would change, but we’ve lost sight of that.

I hear too many people say, “Well, other countries do this better. Other countries are better than us.”

I think we live in the greatest country on Earth, and we’ve got a lot of work to do, of course. But this is still, I believe, the best country to live in and I am so proud to be an American and I’m going to be a patriot that fights for freedom and fights to maintain the Constitution for as long as I draw breath.

Del Guidice: As we wrap up, Representative Love, you’ve been speaking out recently on a new mural in Utah, … which you talked about overlooking some important women. Why do you think conservative women sometimes struggle to be recognized for their contributions?

Love: I think it’s several reasons. One is the conservative women I know, they’re more concerned about getting things done than they are about taking credit.

It’s no different than taking care of something in your household. When the dishes need to be done, we just do it. When somebody needs to get to work, we just go. When the kids need to get to school, or homework is left, or they need to get to the doctor’s office, we don’t sit there and say, “Hey, this is what I did today. Praise me.” No, just get it done.

So I think that that’s one of the things that some great women who have broken through the glass ceiling and have gotten cut on the way there, they’ve gotten scarred, it’s not something that you sit there and you parade around and say, “Look what I’ve done.”

Again, I also think, especially in the state of Utah, so many great women have broken through the glass ceiling, and if we forget about them, then other people put a ceiling, it gets covered over again.

My friend, Deidre Henderson, who is going to be the next lieutenant governor … says that it’s a brick wall. She’s like, “It’s difficult to break through the brick wall just to watch people build it up again by bearing our history.”

So that’s the other thing I’m going to do. I’m going to make sure that conservative women, Republican women get recognized for the good work that they’ve done, because there are people that would like to bury our history and I want my children to know these great women so that they know that the world doesn’t revolve around them, that they have gifts and talents to contribute to society also, that they too can be a great conservative member of their community and of their country and provide something that gives a little bit of themselves for this country.

Del Guidice: Representative Love, thank you so much for joining us on “The Daily Signal Podcast.” It’s been great having you.

Love: Thank you so much, Rachel. I appreciate you.

This article has been corrected to reflect that Rep. Love was the first black Republican congresswoman.