| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
C-SPAN, Democracy Unfiltered. | |
| We're funded by these television companies and more, including Buckeye Broadband. | ||
| Buckeye Broadband supports C-SPAN as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. | ||
| Next, the protests held by Democrats and activists outside the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Washington, D.C. with Representative Maxine Waters of California and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren. | ||
| They called out Elon Musk for instructing the Department of Government Efficiency to make cuts to the Bureau, which was established in 2011 to protect consumers' finances after the 2008 financial crisis. | ||
| We're here today because Elon Musk and Doge have infiltrated the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. | ||
| They are trying to shut it down, helping to delete it. | ||
| But we're not going to let them get away with it. | ||
| One of our secret weapons is that the public actually understands what this little agency does. | ||
| The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stands up for consumers when credit card companies and banks try to rip us off. | ||
| But Elon Musk and the Trump administration are squarely on the side of higher credit card fees, higher bank fees, and more abusive junk fees. | ||
| Musk himself wants to control the payment systems that Americans use. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Greed. | ||
| It's pure greed. | ||
| Another way to put this is that Elon Musk is stealing from you. | ||
| And that's the core message of this event today. | ||
| The Trump administration and Doge and Elon Musk, all with their hijinks and chaos, are actually after one thing, stealing from the American people. | ||
| They are stealing from you. | ||
| So I want you to say it with me. | ||
| They are stealing from you. | ||
| They are stealing from you. | ||
| When Trump and Musk tell the hardworking civil servants in this building to stop cracking down on credit card companies that charge abusive fees, what is he up to? | ||
| They are stealing from you. | ||
| And when Musk and his minions try to undo the rule that brought down overdraft fees from $32 to $8, what is he doing? | ||
| They are stealing from you. | ||
| When Musk insists that medical debt, which was just taken off our credit score reports, that will now be used to jack up the costs of your home or car loan, what is he doing? | ||
| That's right. | ||
| Elon Musk, Doge, and the Trump administration are stealing from you by trying to shut down and delete the CFPB. | ||
| They are stealing your data for their own gritty ends. | ||
| And soon they will try to pass giant tax cuts for big banks, big credit card companies, and for billionaires and Elon Musk and Donald Trump himself. | ||
| But we are going to stop them together. | ||
| And of course, there's no one better to lead us in that effort than the lady herself who created the CFPB. | ||
| We all know that's Senator Elizabeth Warren, which the Progressive Change Institute has worked with fighting by her side since she first ran for Senate. | ||
| And we can't wait to hear her inspiring remarks. | ||
| So who's excited to hear from Senator Warren? | ||
| I hate to tell you, there's going to be one more person first who's also inspiring and incredibly important in this fight. | ||
| So I'm going to bring up Ezra Levin from Indivisible, who is going to introduce the senator from Massachusetts. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Everybody, I'm not Elizabeth Warren. | ||
| I'm Ezra Levin. | ||
| I'm from Indivisible. | ||
| Thank you, thank you. | ||
| So I do want to praise our incredible partners in this Progressive Change Institute. | ||
| We just heard from Marie. | ||
| Give it up. | ||
| We got move on, Americans for Financial Reform, but especially CFPB Union NTEU 335. | ||
| 335. | ||
| These are the workers who are protecting us from the big banks, from the financial scammers. | ||
| Give them some love. | ||
| Let's hear it. | ||
| Give them some love. | ||
| I got to brag a little bit. | ||
| I got to brag a little bit. | ||
| Because last week, last week, when Elon Musk started raiding the Treasury. | ||
| Oh, I think I hear a senator coming soon. | ||
| She's coming up soon. | ||
| We're going to get to her. | ||
| We'll get to you. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Last week when Elon Musk started raiding the Treasury, I got to say, there was a little bit of a sluggish response from some of our congressional allies. | ||
| I didn't love to see it. | ||
| Didn't love to see it. | ||
| We had then 50,000 people on a call. | ||
| And what we were asking folks to do was go around to your own senators' offices where you live, where you live, and tell them, stop Elon Musk. | ||
| And that one little call, within 24 hours, there were 300 events all over the country in every single state save Mississippi, Tupelo, Mississippi, Indivisible. | ||
| I'll get in touch with you. | ||
| Every single state just about was calling on their senators. | ||
| Then on Tuesday, who here was at the Treasury building on Tuesday? | ||
| We had thousands of people calling on senators to shut it down, shut it down, shut it down, shut it down. | ||
| That was on Tuesday. | ||
| On Wednesday. | ||
| You know what our Senate Democratic colleagues did? | ||
| They shut it down. | ||
| They shut it down. | ||
| They listened to you. | ||
| They used up all their time that they could to slow down the Senate and fight back against Russell Vogt, that human embodiment of Project 2025. | ||
| We're reaching the boo part of this. | ||
| I'm glad. | ||
| We're getting there. | ||
| So he got through. | ||
| He is now trying to shut down the CFPB. | ||
| That's what he's trying to do. | ||
| How did he get into office? | ||
| I'm going to name a few names. | ||
| Senator Susan Collins of Maine. | ||
| Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina. | ||
| Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska. | ||
| Senator John Ozzid of Ohio. | ||
| Senator Joni Ernst from Iowa. | ||
| You know what all those folks share in common? | ||
| At least two things. | ||
| One, they all voted for Russell Vogt. | ||
| Two, they're all up for reelection next year. | ||
| Trump, Trump and Musk, Trump and Musk want you to feel powerless. | ||
| Are you powerless? | ||
| Trump and Musk want congressional Democrats to feel powerless. | ||
| Are they powerless? | ||
| No. | ||
| Okay, but let's get specific. | ||
| If you've been doing indivisible, you know what? | ||
| Look, I love a good chant, but we're not just here to chant. | ||
| We're going to actually do some organizing together, right? | ||
| We're going to actually make impact in real time together as a group. | ||
| So here's what I'm going to say. | ||
| We are headed into a showdown with congressional Republicans. | ||
| And you know what they're doing right now? | ||
| They are asking for Democratic votes to give money to Trump and Musk to continue to raid our government. | ||
| Should Democrats give them those votes? | ||
| No! | ||
| That's right, but what should they do? | ||
| Here's what I'm going to say. | ||
| We should be asking them, withhold your vote. Withhold your vote. Withhold your vote. Withhold your vote. | ||
| Okay, wait, why are you turning at me? | ||
| I'm not a senator. | ||
| I'm not a representative. | ||
| What can I do? | ||
| Wait, what's that? | ||
| Oh, wait, I'm just hearing that we have got members of Congress here with us today. | ||
| We've got a lot of members of Congress. | ||
| We've got more than 15 members of Congress. | ||
| So, here, even for my favorite members of Congress, this is an organizing moment. | ||
| And it is our responsibility in organizing moments to put the questions even to our best friends in the Senate. | ||
| Testing, testing? | ||
| Okay, I don't want to leave Senator Warren here standing too much longer. | ||
| Okay, so here's my ask. | ||
| Senator Warren, as you come up and speak to us and inspire us, can you commit to withholding your vote until this constitutional crisis is over? | ||
| I am so glad to be here with you today. | ||
| My name is Elizabeth Warren, and I am here with you to fight for our Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. | ||
| The CFPB is the cop on the beat. | ||
| And that cop is the one that caught the crooks and so far has made them give back $21 billion. | ||
| That is the one at $21 billion right back into the hands of the American people who got cheated. | ||
| That cop is the one who has worked day by day to get your money back when some slime ball decided they could cheat you and there wouldn't be anything you can do about it. | ||
| Now The CFPB is the little agency that has fought for us, and we are here today to fight for the CFPB. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Let's give a huge cheer for the CFPB. | |
| Donald Trump ran his campaign on lowering costs for working families. | ||
| Yeah, now he and his co-president, Elon Musk, have tried to shut down the agency that has delivered $21 billion to hardworking families. | ||
| $21 billion to people who got cheated. | ||
| And Trump and Musk want to just take that agency away. | ||
| Donald Trump and Elon Musk have told the financial cops at the CFPB to stand down. | ||
| Now think about this. | ||
| I want you to think about this for a minute. | ||
| No matter how big the scam, no matter how bold the trap, they have said, just stand by and let the Wall Street boys take your money. | ||
| Well, we are here to fight back. | ||
| our financial cops back on the beat. | ||
| This is a fight. | ||
| And I want you to watch who this fight is between. | ||
| This is a fight between millions of hardworking people who just don't want to get cheated and a handful of billionaires like Elon Musk who want the chance to cheat them. | ||
| So here's how we have to think about this. | ||
| For every person who wants to buy a home without getting scammed, this fight is your fight. | ||
| For every family that doesn't want to get put out on the street in an illegal foreclosure, this is your fight. | ||
| For every student who wants to borrow money to go to school without getting defrauded, this is your fight. | ||
| For every member of our military who doesn't want to get trapped by some sleazy payday lender, say it with me, this is your fight. | ||
| For every person who borrows money to buy a car and doesn't want to get trapped in the fine print, this is your fight. | ||
| For every American who doesn't want to see Wall Street crash our economy again, this is your fight. | ||
| Oh, and for every American who doesn't want some weird Elon Musk suck up searching through your personal private data, this is your fight. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Your fight, my fight, our fight, and we will win this fight. | |
| Because understand this. | ||
| This fight is about more than one little agency. | ||
| This fight is about more than just our financial rules and regulations. | ||
| This fight is about more than just Democrat versus Republican politics. | ||
| This fight is about hardworking people versus the billionaires who want to squeeze more and more and more money out of them. | ||
| And now, now is our time to put a stop to this. | ||
| Look, these damn billionaires are making their moves right out in the open. | ||
| Look at Elon, please. | ||
| No, just look. | ||
| He invested $288 million to buy an election for Donald Trump. | ||
| And now he is right here to collect on that investment. | ||
| Elon Musk owns X, which has been losing money like crazy. | ||
| So Elon has a plan for a new payment platform called X Money. | ||
| Elon wants X money to touch every part of your financial life. | ||
| But, but, Elon has got a problem. | ||
| The financial cops. | ||
| The CFPB is there to make sure that Elon's new project can't scam you or steal your sensitive personal data. | ||
| So Elon's solution, get rid of the cops, kill the CFPB. | ||
| This is like a bank robber trying to fire the cops and turn off the alarms just before he strolls into the lobby. | ||
| We are here to fight back. | ||
| So I got to ask: are you ready to stand up to the scammers? | ||
| Are you ready to push back against the fraudsters? | ||
| Are you ready to say no to Elon Musk? | ||
| Look, after the 2008 financial crash and the big bank bailout, Congress created the CFPB to protect people from getting swindled. | ||
| Congress built it, and no one other than Congress, not Donald Trump, not Elon Musk, no one can fire the financial cops. | ||
| We are fighting back and understand this. | ||
| There is power in fighting back. | ||
| Real power. | ||
| We, the people, not Elon Musk, we, the people, have the real power in this country, and we are going to use that power. | ||
| So here it is. | ||
| Are you ready to fight for the little agency that fights for us? | ||
| Are you ready to fight the billionaires who are trying to take over this country? | ||
| Are you ready to say no to Elon Musk? | ||
| We will fight it out in Congress. | ||
| We will fight it out in the courts. | ||
| We will fight it out across this country. | ||
| And I promise you, we will win. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Give it up for Senator Elizabeth Warren. | |
| Okay, we've got a lot of champions here today. | ||
| We have another senator coming up. | ||
| And remember, remind me, what are we asking our elected officials right now? | ||
| Something about withholding something. | ||
| Withhold your vote. | ||
| Senator Chris Van Holland, my senator from Maryland, I got to ask you, are you willing to withhold your vote until this constitutional crisis is over? | ||
| I am. | ||
| I am. | ||
| And no more business as usual in the United States Senate. | ||
| Let's give it up for Elizabeth Warren, who helped create the CFPB. | ||
| So Elon Musk wants to shut down the CFPB, but we're here to say we're going to shut down Elon Musk's illegal operation. | ||
| You know, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has returned billions of dollars to Americans who were victims of fraudsters, of cheaters, and scammers. | ||
| And so there's something particularly sick, particularly twisted, about the richest man in the world trying to shut down that compensation for Americans who have been cheated by scammers. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Are we going to shut down the Elon Musk operation? | |
| You bet we are because as Elizabeth Warren said, and you know, this is a small organization and it's taken on some very powerful interests. | ||
| It's the cop on the beat, but all those cheaters and scammers, they don't want it to succeed. | ||
| And so that's why they brought Elon Musk in to do their dirty work for them. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Are we going to let them get away with that? | |
| Hell no. | ||
| This is the most corrupt bargain in American history. | ||
| Elon Musk spent over $280 million to elect Donald Trump, and Donald Trump has given Elon Musk the keys to the United States government. | ||
| Are we going to let that stand? | ||
| This is a takeover. | ||
| You see what they're doing here at the CFPB. | ||
| You saw what happened over at the Treasury Department, the biggest heist of Americans sensitive personal information that we've ever seen. | ||
| Are we going to let that stand? | ||
| They access Social Security information. | ||
| They access banking information. | ||
|
unidentified
|
A judge told them to cut it out. | |
| And you probably heard the Vice President of the United States saying, I'm not sure a judge has that power. | ||
| Well, judges have that power. | ||
| They have the power to apply the law. | ||
| So all of us need to do what we're doing right here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Stand, unite, and fight democracy over oligarchy. | |
| Stop the billionaire grift. | ||
| Nobody elected Elon, and that's why it's important that the American people gather here because I will close with this. | ||
| Their ultimate goal is to shut down important services for the American people. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They just shut down, and they just deeply cut monies that are spent in medical research to help develop cures and treatments for cancer. | |
| They shut down funds for the Agency for International Development that helps stop the spread of diseases overseas, which not only saves lives overseas, but stops those diseases from spreading here in the United States. | ||
| And when they cut all those important programs for the American people, they've been at the Department of Education. | ||
| They've been over at CMS with the Medicare files. | ||
| They've been throughout the government. | ||
| What they want to do is they then want to give this big, fat tax cut to Elon Musk and the billionaires. | ||
| Are we going to let them do that? | ||
| Hell no, we're not going to let them do that because when Donald Trump on Inauguration Day said it's going to be a new golden age for America, he did not mean the people he said he had campaigned for. | ||
| He didn't mean the forgotten Americans. | ||
| He meant Elon Musk and the tech titans who were standing right behind him. | ||
| So this is a great fraud. | ||
| This is the great betrayal we're seeing in the first 21 days. | ||
| And we're here to blow the whistle and say, hell no, we're going to shut down the Elon Musk operation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Are we going to do that? | |
| Let's do it together. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And now, one of my great heroes, Maxine Waters. | ||
| Wow, wow, wow. | ||
| Look at this crowd. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Elon Musk, where are you? | |
| Bring your ass over here so you can see who's here and what we're doing. | ||
| We're not afraid of you. | ||
| We know that you are the co-president now of the United States of America. | ||
| But ladies and gentlemen, I want you to follow very closely what he's doing and how he has done it. | ||
| First of all, we're here at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. | ||
| What is it? | ||
| This is so important. | ||
| Prior to this being organized in the Dodd-Frank reforms, consumers didn't have any place to really file complaints. | ||
| They didn't have anywhere to go when the biggest banks in America was ripping them off. | ||
| The student loans were being undermined. | ||
| They didn't have any place to go. | ||
| But guess what? | ||
| The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was organized in a way to deal with people who are the victims of fraud by the biggest corporations in America. | ||
| And so, what do they do? | ||
| They're holding mega banks accountable for violating the law. | ||
| They're protecting service members from illegal fees, high interest loans, and false advertising. | ||
| Stops discrimination in housing and the U.S. economy. | ||
| Protects students from scams. | ||
| Why does Elon Musk want to get rid of all of this? | ||
| Because he's a thief. | ||
| He's a gangster. | ||
| He brings his billionaire friends along with him because they think that they can take over this country. | ||
| And Trump has said, you give me enough money, you can have it. | ||
| And that's what he has done. | ||
| He has turned over our country to Elon Musk. | ||
| We didn't elect him. | ||
| We didn't select him. | ||
| We didn't ask for him. | ||
| And we don't want him. | ||
| And so, if he thinks we're pushovers, he got another thought coming. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We are prepared to fight. | |
| We're prepared to fight. | ||
| And while he is collecting all of the data, he has violated our privacy. | ||
| He has violated our privacy and he keeps going. | ||
| Well, you know, we fought him over at Treasury. | ||
| Remember, he took his little gangsters in and they stole our private information and we organized in the way that we're doing today. | ||
| He was surprised as hell. | ||
| He didn't know that we would come together in the way that we're doing. | ||
| USAID. | ||
| He went in there. | ||
| Why did he go? | ||
| It is my understanding he was already under investigation by you. | ||
| And so he went in there to steal all of the records, to get all of the data. | ||
| But guess what? | ||
| It's something bigger going on with him and Trump. | ||
| Elon is over in South Africa threatening Ramaposa, the president of South Africa, and telling him, we are coming in here. | ||
| I'm going to create a whole battery factory. | ||
| But you guys work to get something, I believe, in your Constitution, that says that the black South Africans and people who we fought for to get rid of apartheid now can have 30% in all of the foreign businesses that come in. | ||
| Elon Musk said, I'm going to build a battery factory. | ||
| I want you to get rid of that 30%. | ||
| And so we said no. | ||
| And so I've talked with the ambassador from South Africa. | ||
| They're fighting. | ||
| They're struggling. | ||
| But guess what happened? | ||
| Trump announced that they're going to get rid of all the foreign aid if he doesn't do it. | ||
| And they're reorganizing, reorganizing all of the right-wing old people that we fought in order to get rid of apartheid. | ||
| But now these gangsters are going to threaten and blunt them and take over South Africa by going in and developing all of Elon's businesses and the battery factory. | ||
| This is thievery. | ||
| This is gangsterism. | ||
| This is no respect for anything or anybody. | ||
| Well, I want you to know that we are not afraid of anything and anybody. | ||
| We have worked too hard. | ||
| We have fought too hard for this democracy, and we ain't turning it over to Elon Musk. | ||
| I want Elon Musk to know that we're going to stop him. | ||
| I don't care what he thinks about his power. | ||
| I don't care what he thinks about his ownership of this country. | ||
| First of all, I want to applaud the courts. | ||
| They're doing a pretty damn good job right now. | ||
| They're doing a pretty damn good job, but they will be as strong as we are. | ||
| When we show up in the numbers like we're doing today, it sends a message to the courts that we mean business. | ||
| Do we mean business? | ||
| Now, ladies and gentlemen, we got to send another message out here. | ||
| And the message is for all of you who voted for him, you didn't know he was going to get you to. | ||
| And so we want you to come forward. | ||
| And I want you to say, I voted, but I changed my mind. | ||
| I didn't know that he was going to get me to. | ||
| I didn't know that he was going to make sure that anybody in any of these agencies where we want to go in and capture all of this data, which we will monetize. | ||
| He's all about money. | ||
| All of it will be monetized. | ||
| I'm so proud to be here with you today. | ||
| One of the greatest achievements of my career has been the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. | ||
| And let me just wrap this up by saying I was there when we created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the Dodd-Frank reforms. | ||
| Remember that? | ||
| And we created that, and I've worked with it. | ||
| They have fought us. | ||
| The Republicans have tried to destroy it. | ||
| We have won in the Supreme Court, but we were smart. | ||
| When we organized it, we made sure they didn't have to go through the appropriations process. | ||
| They get their funding directly from the feds. | ||
| And just as we worked to protect it so that their money would not be taken from them in the appropriations process, we're going to work now to make sure that he's not going to kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. | ||
| We're not going to allow it. | ||
| They lied on us when we were over at the Department of Education. | ||
| They said, that's what Trump said. | ||
| He said that we were breaking it. | ||
| We ain't breaking in nowhere. | ||
| We're using our power. | ||
| We're using our collective power. | ||
| We're standing up. | ||
| We're speaking out. | ||
| And this is our country, and we're not going to let Eman Les have it. | ||
| He can't have it. | ||
| So, Elon, come here and face us. | ||
| Bring your ass on over here. | ||
| Come on over here and face us so you can hear from us. | ||
| You can see us. | ||
| You can look us in the eye. | ||
| We're not afraid. | ||
| Are we going to fight? | ||
| Are we going to win? | ||
| Is this our country? | ||
| Are we going to let it be sold? | ||
| Are we going to tell Trump, get out of the way and take your thieving Elon Musk with you? | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
|
unidentified
|
When we fight, we win. | |
| When we fight, we win. | ||
| Representative Max E. Waters, everybody. | ||
| Incredible. | ||
| Okay, we've got a lineup here of a lot of fighters. | ||
| And what do we want to see from our fighters? | ||
| We've got Frank Pallone from New Jersey. | ||
| Representative Pallone, can I ask you, are you willing to withhold your vote until this constitutional crisis is over? | ||
| I'm absolutely withholding my vote. | ||
| And we just want to thank you. | ||
| We've got a lot of Democratic members of Congress here from all over the country. | ||
| And we just want to thank you all because you have the power. | ||
| And it's just great to see so many people here today united to fight against Elon Musk and Trump and what they're trying to do with the Consumer Agency. | ||
| Now, I just want to say very briefly, in my home state of New Jersey, last year, there were 100,000 people that filed complaints with the CFPB. | ||
| And as has been mentioned, if it didn't exist and if it wasn't really robust, they would not have a place to go. | ||
| And that's why this is so important, because the billionaires have a place to go, but the little guy often does not. | ||
| And they have it here in this agency. | ||
| And I want to tell you, back in my district, I don't care if it's payday lenders or it's medical debt or it's overdraft fees. | ||
| People are hurting. | ||
| And it's only because of this agency that they have someone to fight for them against all these predatory practices. | ||
| So once again, thank you again. | ||
| Thank you for what you do. | ||
| And we're going to continue the fight. | ||
| Thanks. | ||
| When we fight, we win. | ||
| When we fight, we win. | ||
| Okay, I'm really pleased to introduce our next speaker. | ||
| Representative Ayana Presley is in the House. | ||
| Where is Ayana? | ||
| I think I know the answer to this, but Representative Presley, are you willing to withhold your vote until this constitutional crisis is over? | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| Last week I saw a sign in the crowd that said DOGE stands for dangerous oligarchs grab at everything. | ||
| And I said then, and I'll say it again, that Elon Musk needs to keep his grubby hands, his greedy, grubby hands, off of our government. | ||
| You know, I don't know about all of you, but I'm having a hard time sleeping at night. | ||
| My daughter is 16 years old and looking at colleges, and I'm so worried about the world that she's living in now and the world that she will inherit. | ||
| And I asked myself, you know, how do we get here? | ||
| How were working men and women convinced to believe that a failed businessman who was godless and lawless could lead them anywhere? | ||
| Because he lied. | ||
| Because he's a liar and a crook. | ||
| But you know, he's been given a lot of oxygen. | ||
| I want to give you all some. | ||
| You're all here when you could have been anywhere else because you give a damn. | ||
| You give a damn about this country. | ||
| You give a damn about our democracy. | ||
| You give a damn about your neighbors. | ||
| You are the true patriots. | ||
| Now, you may not have an occupant in the Oval Office that cares about lifting your burdens and lightening your loads and harnessing your dreams to make them real. | ||
| But know that the Democrats that stand behind me, they have got your back. | ||
| And we will wait until they stand down because we are going to match energy. | ||
| And your muskrats. | ||
| Elon Musk, I mean Donald Trump, same thing at this point, right? | ||
| Who really is the president, Donald? | ||
| Donald Trump ran on a promise to bring down costs for everyday people, didn't have a plan for it, but said he would. | ||
| Well, Donald, how's that going? | ||
| I'll ask you all, how's it going? | ||
| Are your eggs cheaper? | ||
| Is your housing more affordable? | ||
| No. | ||
| Tell me how letting Elon put his paws in the cookie jar is helping a single person who calls this country home. | ||
| Families are struggling. | ||
| The rent is too damn high. | ||
| The cost of groceries is too damn high. | ||
| The big banks and giant corporations are all too eager to nickel and dime hardworking people. | ||
| And you know what has been a saving grace for families trying to hold on to a buck? | ||
| This small but mighty government agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. | ||
| Now look, those of you watching, you may have never heard of them. | ||
| You know, isn't it just the truth that you don't know how much you benefit from your government or your democracy until someone comes through with a wrecking ball and creates a constitutional crisis with an unprecedented power grab? | ||
| You've never heard of them, but trust me, they've been working hard for you, the people, for over a decade. | ||
| They are the same agency that got banks to capture overdraft fees. | ||
| They take on scammers that are after our elders' money. | ||
| They stop the medical debt from dinging your credit report. | ||
| They go after banks that practice lending discrimination. | ||
| This is what we're going to dismantle. | ||
| What in the hell kind of government efficiency is that? | ||
| No justice for scam elders? | ||
| Look, let me tell you something. | ||
| I'll take a bit of umbrage here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'll speak on behalf of my colleagues. | |
| I think I can say, we are all willing to work with anyone who's serious about doing the work of censoring the American people and advancing progress. | ||
| But they are not serious. | ||
| This is not about government efficiency. | ||
| What kind of efficiency makes people hungrier, poorer, and less safe? | ||
| The CFPB are watchdogs fighting for the people. | ||
| So no wonder Elon and Donald want to gut it. | ||
| They don't want watchdogs protecting the people. | ||
| They want predators and bad actors to run rampant and take people for a ride. | ||
| These men just want to pillage the government and make themselves rich. | ||
| Meanwhile, the CFPB, this essential agency that could put $21 billion, that's B with a billion dollars back in people's pockets. | ||
| Now, if you're Elon Musk with a net worth, are y'all ready? | ||
| Of near $400 billion, maybe that's pocket change. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But not for everyday people. | |
| The good policies coming out of this place have been make or break for folks struggling to make ends meet in the midst of recessions, pandemics, and much more. | ||
| So I just want to take a moment, because I told some stories and profiles about people who've been protected and helped by this agency, but I don't want this workforce to be faceless to you. | ||
| Can we just thank this dedicated workforce at the CFPB? | ||
| Agencies across our government who have been doing this life-saving work. | ||
| They take pride. | ||
| That's right. | ||
| Life-saving work. | ||
| And this is also about their lives and their livelihoods as well. | ||
| So we're grateful to them in the midst of this unprecedented assault on our democracy. | ||
| And I want to say to them, the uncertainty and fear that you are feeling today is real. | ||
| But I want you to know that every single person here in Then Sum has your back. | ||
| And we are going to litigate, legislate, agitate, and resist because you are worth it. | ||
| So we will see you in Congress, in the courts, and in the streets. | ||
| And I'll close it out here. | ||
| Again, as I think about my 16-year-old daughter, a movement sibling of all of ours, Cecile Richards, an incredible warrior for justice, recently transitioned. | ||
| And in the midst of battling cancer, she was still out in these streets organizing and resisting. | ||
| And she was asked, what are you doing here? | ||
| You're still fighting when you're in a fight for your life. | ||
| And her response was, the question will be asked, when everything was at stake for the country, what did you do? | ||
| And the only acceptable answer will be everything that I could. | ||
| Thank you all. | ||
| Representative Iana Presley, everyone. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| Now, that is a tough act to follow, but we've got a couple of folks, Alice Cohen and Marissa Dukowski, who are consumer attorneys for the CFPB on the front lines, actually fighting for all of us. | ||
| Y'all here to tell us the actual impact of this attack on Americans. | ||
| We're looking for an Allison and Marissa. | ||
| Oh, here we go. | ||
| Hello. | ||
| Hi, everyone. | ||
| My name is Marissa Dukowski. | ||
| I'm a multiply disabled attorney and activist, the Disabilities Community Project staff attorney at SEDEC DC, an independent public interest law center. | ||
| We've represented numerous clients who have come to us after Comerica Bank refused to reverse unauthorized charges on their direct express cards, which are used by over 3 million people to receive payments for Social Security, veteran pensions, and disability benefits. | ||
| Many of these folks have disabilities or over 65. | ||
| In one case, an 87-year-old disabled client whose only source of income was Social Security came to us for help in disputing charges for online purchases taken out of her Social Security payment. | ||
| She didn't even know how to use a computer. | ||
| We attempted to contact Comerica Bank and were on hold for at least an hour if we could even get through. | ||
| Each time we called about five times. | ||
| To make matters worse, our client relied on a prepaid phone, so each call required my client to spend resources she simply did not have. | ||
| When we could get someone on the line, the agent would often hang up upon learning that an attorney was on the call. | ||
| Once an agent promised to send her a fraud questionnaire, but surprise, surprise, never did. | ||
| After about a month and a half of disputing the fraudulent claims with Comerica, it became more expensive for our client to call Direct Express repeatedly on her prepaid phone than it was for her to stop disputing the final fraudulent charge and assume liability for this loss. | ||
| That's why the CFPB just two months ago sued Comerica Bank for conduct that includes deliberately disconnecting 24 million customer service calls and mishandling fraud complaints. | ||
| But work on that case has now halted. | ||
| Yes, Boo is right. | ||
| The CFPB's move to hold Comerica accountable for violations of federal laws and regulations was so critical. | ||
| Not everyone has a lawyer to support them, and even those who do can't always get the relief they're looking for. | ||
| Lawsuits like this one addressing systemic violations help to keep consumers like my client safe. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Good evening, allies. | ||
| I am Elise Cohen from the National Consumer Law Center, and this is my colleague NCLC Associate Director, Lauren Saunders. | ||
| Homeowners around the nation have the CFPB to thank for a mortgage market that roots out fraud and abuse, and for the fact that when families hit a bump in the road, companies are required to work with you to find an affordable solution. | ||
| Let me tell you about one family who, after multiple significant hardships, saved their home because of the CFPB. | ||
| The son of elderly homeowners in a rural county in Maine, scattered with family farms, bought his parents' home so they could live out the rest of their lives there and he could live with and care for them. | ||
| Due to medical issues and job loss, he soon after lost his salary and instead received Social Security, disability, and food stamps. | ||
| He fell behind on the mortgage. | ||
| He cut back on everything he could, groceries, heat, hot water, gifts, going out. | ||
| He felt overcome with guilt that he could not make the payments and suffered from depression. | ||
| He saw that his mother suffered from anxiety around losing the home too, and that made him feel more guilt and shame. | ||
| When he asked for mortgage help, his loan company, a company that the CFPB has sued, offered him an expensive plan that set him up to fail instead of the affordable one their policies required. | ||
| The monthly payment was 150% of his monthly income on disability, and it required an initial payment that was 200% of his monthly income. | ||
| The son and his parents pooled their resources and made payments, but this was not sustainable. | ||
| During these times, his mother passed away and he cared for his father who had dementia. | ||
| The mortgage company should have given this family the payment they could afford, the one their policies required, but instead they gave them years of hardship. | ||
| Later, the family was able to get help, and because the CFPB's rules made the difference, they were able to get that affordable payment, the one they should have been offered years earlier. | ||
| Because of the CFPB, his father could live out his life in the family home. | ||
| The CFPB saves homes. | ||
| B, C, F, P, B, C, F, P, B, C, F, P, B, C, F, P, B. | ||
| Yes! | ||
| For Elon Musk, this is about power. | ||
| This isn't about power. | ||
| This is about people. | ||
| That's why we are here. | ||
| That's why we are here. | ||
| Now, we're going to hear from Doug Wilson with the CFPB Union. | ||
| Doug, come on up. | ||
| Tell us the impact of this attack on people. | ||
| Good afternoon. | ||
| Thank you for being here. | ||
| I am a proud employee of the CFPB. | ||
| And I am a proud member of our union. | ||
| NTEU, Chapter 335. | ||
| Let's hear it. | ||
| We just want to do our jobs. | ||
| Our work at the CFPB touches the lives of almost every American. | ||
| We protect you if you have a bank account, a credit card. | ||
| If you've ever taken out a mortgage to buy a house for your family, or an auto loan to buy a car so you can get to work, then it's our job to look out for you. | ||
| We are on the side of the American consumer. | ||
| We are the only federal agency solely focused on protecting consumers in the financial marketplace. | ||
| When payday lenders charge 400% interest, when debt collectors harass people at work, when credit card or when credit reporting companies lose your data, we're the ones who step in and make it right. | ||
| So what happens if the CFPB disappears? | ||
| Who will fight for service members targeted by predatory car loans? | ||
| Who will stand up for seniors getting scammed out of their retirement savings? | ||
| Who will ensure that mortgage lenders don't discriminate? | ||
| My colleagues and I, we just want to get back to work. | ||
| The CFPB has protected consumers under Republican and Democratic presidents. | ||
| We just need to keep doing this work. | ||
| If you're standing with us today, we need your support more than ever. | ||
| The CFPB's mission to protect consumers isn't just our job. | ||
| It's a commitment that we share with every American who believes in fair financial markets and a fair shake in life. | ||
| Please tell your friends and family about the CFPB's work. | ||
| Share our stories. | ||
| Contact your elected representatives and let them know that a strong independent CFPB is essential. | ||
| Your voice makes a difference in this fight. | ||
| Together, we can ensure that the CFPB continues to stand up for consumers across America. | ||
| And to my brothers and sisters in the NTEU, we are not giving up. | ||
| We have our rights. | ||
| We have our contract. | ||
| And we are going to fight to get back to work protecting American consumers. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Thank you, Doug. | ||
| Let us work. Let us work. Let us work. Let us work. Let us work. | ||
| We've got more members of Congress here wanting to fight for the CFPB. | ||
| Representative Emmanuel Cleaver from Missouri, I just got one question. | ||
| Are you willing to withhold your vote until this constitutional crisis is over? | ||
| Right now. | ||
| Right now. | ||
| One of the greatest joys of my time here in Congress was to work with Maxine Waters, Elizabeth Warren, and Barney Frank to create the CFPB. | ||
| Now, I'm going to be quick because I want to send a message to somebody. | ||
| Elon, take your musty millions and musty Moscow rights to the moon. | ||
| Because if you don't, we're going to stand up, we're going to speak out, we're going to march, we're going to do anything we need to do to make sure that the people of this country understand that the CFPB is for them. | ||
| You get your mustard hands off of our money or go to Moscow, you mustard moo moo moo. | ||
| Love that. | ||
| Representative Joyce Beatty from Ohio. | ||
| Can I ask you, are you willing to withhold your vote until this constitutional crisis is over? | ||
| I will hold my vote until they understand and respect us. | ||
| I come today because we put consumer protection over profit. | ||
| I come today because we stand in faith. | ||
| I come today because we stand with unions. | ||
| I come today because we are the people and it is about people power. | ||
| I come today because I serve on the powerful Financial Services Committee and Maxine Waters will always be my chair. | ||
| I come here today to say that we come with our executive orders, the people's orders. | ||
| I come today because we come with our notice to put on their doors because it is the notice of the people. | ||
| Why are we here? | ||
| We are here because we understand that we have a job to do, the people's job together. | ||
| I come to do my black job. | ||
| I come to tell you that black and brown people, $1 trillion since 2008 on illegal foreclosures. | ||
| I come to say that corporate America, we stand with the CFPB because you will not take our cars. | ||
| You will not foreclose on our homes. | ||
| You will not take over because we represent the people's house. | ||
| We represent people power. | ||
| We represent standing with the people. | ||
| So when you ask us if we will hold our vote, we will say to Elon Musk and we will say to Donald Trump, we are not afraid of you. | ||
| Bring it on because we have people power, people power, people power. | ||
| And let me close with saying, we stand with you. | ||
| We fight with you. | ||
| We go to war with you because we understand that we are here to represent the people's house. | ||
| And you can trust us because we stand with you every day. | ||
| When we go into that committee, every day, our job is to make somebody uncomfortable because they're trying to take away our power. | ||
| And let me say to the Republicans on the other side, where are you? | ||
| When we think four out of five people stand with the CFPB, 77% of them are Republicans. | ||
| So where are they today? | ||
| Let's go knock on their door. | ||
| Let's go tell them we're coming with people power. | ||
| We're coming after everyone who does not stand with us because we stand with you. | ||
| The messages you hear today, they're not an idle threat. | ||
| We come today because this nation is hurting. | ||
| We come today because we care about people. | ||
| We come today because no one elected Elon Musk. | ||
| We come today because Donald Trump can't lead this nation. | ||
| And he is allowing someone not elected to do the job that he's supposed to do. | ||
| So Donald Trump, what does that say about you? | ||
| You don't have power, but we have people power. | ||
| And we're coming after you. | ||
| We're coming after you with our people power. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| God bless you. | ||
| And I'm Congresswoman Joyce Beatty. | ||
| And I approve this message. | ||
| God bless you. | ||
| Incredible. | ||
| Incredible. | ||
| Did we elect Elon Musk? | ||
| Is Donald Trump king? | ||
| Are we going to fight? | ||
| Are we going to win? | ||
| Now, Representative Velasquez from New York, the top Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. | ||
| One quick question because we want you to fire us up. | ||
| It's getting a little cold. | ||
| Are you willing to withhold your vote until this constitutional crisis is over? | ||
| You bet. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I'm Congresswoman Niria Velázquez. | ||
| I've been in the Financial Services Committee for 32 years, working with and fighting with Maxim Waters. | ||
| And I was there when we were working on the legislation that created the CFPB. | ||
| And they fought hard. | ||
| They went and they tried to use the legislative vehicle not to prevent this legislation from coming to fruition. | ||
| But then they didn't stop there. | ||
| They went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. | ||
| And we won. | ||
| The people won. | ||
| Because when we fight, we win. | ||
| Okay, so, and by the way, small businesses are consumers too. | ||
| And I am the ranking top Democrat of the Small Business Committee. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So CFPB is an important agency for small businesses in this country. | |
| But I have a question to make. | ||
|
unidentified
|
How many of you went to the grocery store this week or this weekend? | |
| I did. | ||
| I had my family over and I went. | ||
| And by the way, when Donald Trump took office on January 20th, a dozen of eggs cost $5.87. | ||
| Yesterday, a dozen was $12.49. | ||
| In New York, in Court Street. | ||
| So instead of talking about inflation, because he promised that on day one, he will bring inflation down. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And so what is he doing? | |
| He is creating all these crises to keep people and the media asking him whatever happened to inflation, whatever happened to lowering prices for working day people in America. | ||
| He's doing nothing. | ||
| By destroying this agency, he's going to bring inflation down? | ||
| I don't think so. | ||
| This is, this president is a fraud. | ||
| A small-minded person who cares less about people. | ||
| Heartless. | ||
| The other day, I went to another rally, and this young lady approached me. | ||
| This was protesting USAID AIT. | ||
| And she walked over me, put her hand over my shoulder, and said, this man is going to ruin me and my family. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have three children, and one of them is going to college. | |
| My husband, too, works in another agency. | ||
| We are going to find ourselves without a job. | ||
| And I said, no, you're not. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're not because we're going to be fighting for you. | |
| And I don't want anyone to say that we are emotionally exhausted. | ||
| We cannot be. | ||
| Because this is the fight of our lives. | ||
| This is the fight for our children. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is the future of our constitution. | |
| It is about our democratic values. | ||
| And we cannot be afraid of Elon Musk or this president. | ||
| All it takes is organizing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Organizing. | |
| I was here in 2017 when he issued the Muslim ban. | ||
| I was the first member of Congress to go into JFK. | ||
| And we change the dynamic. | ||
| We have the power. | ||
| We must fight for the future of America and the future American family. | ||
| God bless you all. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, can I ask for a favor? | |
| Can you show me what democracy looks like? | ||
| Show me what democracy looks like. | ||
| Okay, our next speaker, Representative Ansari, she's only been on the job for a month, but she did not waste any time coming out swinging. | ||
| One question. | ||
| Are you willing to withhold your vote until this constitutional crisis ends? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Good evening, everyone. | ||
| First of all, such an honor to have these two incredible women who have literally spent their entire lives fighting for this agency. | ||
| Please give them another round of applause. | ||
| I'm Congresswoman Yasiman Ansari. | ||
| I proudly represent Phoenix, Glendale, and Guadalupe in Congress. | ||
| And these hardworking individuals sent me here to fight for them, for their grocery prices, for their cost of living. | ||
| And every single thing that we have seen from this administration is the exact opposite. | ||
| It has been just over 20 days since Donald Trump has been inaugurated as president and since he has pretty much handed over the entirety of our government to Elon Musk. | ||
| And I don't know about you. | ||
| For me, it has felt like so much longer than that because we know that their entire purpose and their agenda is to wear us down and to paralyze us into fear and into feeling like there's nothing we can do. | ||
| I am the proud daughter of immigrants, and I assure you that I grew up hearing about from my parents who fled an authoritarian regime, the habits and the characteristics of what authoritarian regimes act like, right? | ||
| First of all, they take over everything. | ||
| They take over the agencies, they take over the media, they take over every sphere of influence in public life, and they create this culture of fear. | ||
| And that is the absolute last thing that we, as the people in this country, can let happen in this situation. | ||
| This is a war for the soul of our country, and we have to fight back. | ||
| Last week, we have to fight back. | ||
| Never in my life did I think that within one week we would see an all-out assault on U.S. aid, on the Treasury, on the Environmental Protection Agency, on the Department of Education, and now the agency that is literally designed to support and protect working people from fraud and abuse and predatory lenders. | ||
| I can tell you in Arizona, this agency went after a brokerage firm that was literally purposefully preventing people from seeing competition when it came to housing options. | ||
| And in the middle of a housing crisis in Phoenix, Arizona, and across the United States, that is exactly the kind of scheme that we have to fight back against. | ||
| And that's why I'm here today. | ||
| That's why we cannot stop fighting and using every tool in our toolbox. | ||
| We have to stop, stall, and sue until we take back our country for the better. | ||
| Thank you for being here. | ||
| Thank you, Repanzari. | ||
| Stop, stall, sue. | ||
| Stop, stall, sue. | ||
| We've got another representative coming up. | ||
| Tell us how we're going to fight back Representative Bill Foster from Illinois. | ||
| One question, Representative. | ||
| Are you willing to withhold your vote until this constitutional crisis is over? | ||
| That's the power we have, and we're going to use it. | ||
| Now, let me tell you, I'm Congressman Bill Foster. | ||
| I'm Congress's token PhD physicist. | ||
| Yeah, well, you can applaud or you can cry. | ||
| But that's the way it is. | ||
| But, you know, back in 2008, I was a young member of Congress, a junior member of Congress. | ||
| And like every member of Congress who entered then, we were holding workshops for all of the people we represented who had lost their homes because of fraudulent mortgages. | ||
| Everyone who had been screwed over by businesses. | ||
| Signing contracts they didn't understand. | ||
| Credit card companies that had an incredible strategy of just fee after fee after fee, restructuring the order of payments to generate fraudulent failures to pay. | ||
| A long list of things. | ||
| And so when this happened, we took a bunch of emergency actions to save the economy so that people, at least we could survive. | ||
| And then every one of us made a pledge that we would establish the rules of the road so that this sort of disaster would never happen again. | ||
| And that became the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform, everyone knows that, and Consumer Protection Act. | ||
| And that second part is just as important as the Wall Street reform part. | ||
| So I'm very proud. | ||
| I was 10 for 10 in getting my amendments in the Dodd-Frank bill. | ||
| And Barney Frank made an observation. | ||
| When members of Congress came to him and said, how the hell did this happen? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Why is it okay that people sign these things? | |
| He said, well, I tell you what, if you ask who's in charge, who's in charge of consumer protection, it was the Federal Reserve. | ||
| And Barney's observation is, if you're serious about that, the Federal Reserve is not the right organization. | ||
| You need people like you who drive to work every day thinking about how to protect people against fraud. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And that's what we're fighting for. | |
| So, you know, I have to confess I'm not going to be able to finish this with a great rhythmic cheer. | ||
| You know, I bring all the charisma of the usual physicist to this job. | ||
| But I just want to thank every one of you who spent the last decade and more making life better for ordinary Americans. | ||
| And we're on your side. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Representative Foster, thank you. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Let us work! Let us work! Let us work! | ||
| I'm really excited to introduce Lativa Simon, new representative from California. | ||
| Representative Simon, one question. | ||
| Are you willing to withhold your vote until this constitutional crisis is over? | ||
| Every damn day. | ||
| What an amazing opportunity to be here. | ||
| And, you know, we do drown out noise of evil. | ||
| I wanted to just deliver a message for folks who are just tuning in right now from every cancer center in the United States. | ||
| The mother who is literally waiting on a new treatment for her daughter. | ||
| The father who is literally signing his whole life savings so that his son could go through stem cell transplants. | ||
|
unidentified
|
See, I have been there. | |
| I buried my husband over 10 years ago. | ||
| He died on Father's Day of 2014, and I told him that night that I would tell our story every living day of my life. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You see, when Kevin, who was a young black journalist, when we got married and we had our baby, we believed, we deeply believed that everything was in front of us. | |
| I, a young organizer, he, a journalist, he got a fellowship at Stanford, and three days before he was set to teach, he got a diagnosis that changed us forever. | ||
| He was diagnosed with T-cell prolimphatic leukemia, and he was given three days to live. | ||
| We took the baby to grandma's, and I sat in his hospital bed every single day for those three days. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And Lord, I thank every single doctor and healer who surrounded us. | |
| But let me tell you this: two years, we got two years, we got two long years, and my daughter remembers her father's face. | ||
| But we, like so many folks, like the televisions that are watching us right now, we lost everything. | ||
| Everything. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The last thing we had left was Kevin's car after burying him, and it was impounded. | |
| I don't drive, I am legally blind, one of the disabled organizers in this country who will not give up. | ||
| But when I think about folks like me who have filed for bankruptcy and who gave all that they have, and I think of the work of the CFPV, I have to tell folks: you have, you have a Calvary. | ||
| So let them work. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So let them work. | |
| The CPFB has brought home $21 billion to low-income and working-class families across this country. | ||
| They have made sure for families like mine that their medical debt didn't harper their ability to get student loans or get a cell phone or rent a car for the folks who are the most downtrodden, the sick and the tired and the weeping and the disabled. | ||
| This is the Calvary. | ||
| Let them work. | ||
| And every damn day, Democrats will stand instead to support the brave men and women, our siblings, our family, who walk into these offices every day, every day, day after day, to protect the most fundamental rights of the American citizen and our neighbors. | ||
| Let them work. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I am getting... | |
| I am getting chills. | ||
| It has nothing to do with the weather. | ||
| That was incredible. | ||
| Representative Simon, everybody. | ||
| Got another representative from Rhode Island, Gabamo. | ||
| Hey, I just have one question. | ||
| You might have heard this question earlier. | ||
| Are you willing to withhold your vote until this constitutional crisis is over? | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| And let's hear it again for the great people of the CFPB. | ||
| See, the thing is, Trump and Musk and their billionaire buddies know exactly what they're doing. | ||
| They know exactly what they're doing. | ||
| But there are millions of Americans who are just tuning in. | ||
| So we have to let them know what we're standing up for. | ||
| So I have a few questions for you. | ||
| What's wrong with protecting consumers? | ||
| Nothing. | ||
| What's wrong with eliminating junk fees? | ||
| Nothing. | ||
| What is wrong with avoiding foreclosures? | ||
| Nothing. | ||
| What is wrong with making sure that banks don't take every single penny out of your account when you ain't got nothing in it? | ||
| Not a damn thing is wrong with the work of the CFPB. | ||
| In fact, it represents all that is right, protecting Americans. | ||
| And so I say to Elon, take your hands off. | ||
| Take your hands off the CFPB because the American people are watching. | ||
| And we're not just watching. | ||
| We are getting loud. | ||
| We are on the streets. | ||
| We are going to be everywhere making it heard that we are not going to stand for an America run by billionaires. | ||
| So I end with this. | ||
| We are just getting started. | ||
| And let's stay at it. | ||
| Let's stay at it in this fight because the American people are depending on us for the future of our democracy. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| You remember Trump's tiny little hands? | ||
| You remember that? | ||
| When I say tiny hands, you say hands off. | ||
| Tiny hands. | ||
| Tiny hands. | ||
| Okay, we're having fun here. | ||
| We've got Representative Gregory Meeks from New York. | ||
| I've got one question, Representative Meeks. | ||
| Are you willing to withhold your vote? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Didn't even need to ask it. | ||
| Let me, folks, thank all of the men and women who are working here at CFPB for you and what you stand for and what you do on a regular basis, trying to make sure that the average everyday American gets a break and gets justice. | ||
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Thank you for all the hard work that you do. | |
| And let there be no question that we are not going to allow the oligarchs that are around the person that is now the president of the United States to control and destroy who we are as American citizens. | ||
| We are going to stand and we're going to fight and our voices are going to be heard until we get done what is right, what is just for everyone. | ||
| Now I happened to be here in Congress when Maxine Waters and I and others decided that it was important to have a bureau that was focused on one thing, the consumer. | ||
| We have agencies and we have bureaus that are focused on everything else. | ||
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We had nothing, nothing for the consumer. | |
| And what we had was the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression when hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their homes and their livelihood, went bankrupt with no agency or anything or anyone there to protect them. | ||
| They were defrauded. | ||
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Now, we happen to know that the person that is now the head of the United States of America happened to have committed fraud and some other things in the past. | |
| And so, what would you think that that person would do when they come back into office? | ||
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The first thing they want to do is to try to dismantle those things that would level the playing field for the average and everyday person because that's what he's trying to do by destroying the CFPB and closing it down for his oligarch friends. | |
| But we're not going to let that happen. | ||
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We are not going to let that happen. | |
| I tell you this, and when I listened to Latifah, it reminded me of my story with my dad. | ||
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You know, I'm here as a member of Congress now because this is the greatest country this planet has ever seen. | |
| And it's great because average everyday people, like the people that are right here, decided to stand up and say we're going to make this nation greater than it's ever been by pushing forward and making things happen. | ||
| I grew up in public housing. | ||
| My dad had very little money. | ||
| My family, my mother, had very little money. | ||
| And I can recall as a child them being ripped off time and time again simply because they did not know. | ||
| They did not know. | ||
| That was one of the reasons why I determined that I was going to go to law school so that I could help them and give them information. | ||
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Now, what's important is when you think about the work of the CFPB, the average everyday American who may not have someone who went to law school, who may not know a lawyer, who may not know someone else that can help them, because when you're living in public houses, you have everybody, then a lot of folks are in the same boat. | |
| So you need to have some place that you can go to get and seek information so that you won't get ripped off by some greedy person who wants to take advantage of people. | ||
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And what you represent is that no longer were people being taken. | |
| You saved people's homes and you saved them so they could continue to live the American dream. | ||
| You are the heroes of the United States of America. | ||
| You will continue to be the heroes and heroes to make a difference so that we can make sure that all Americans have the opportunity to get information and not ripped off by the super wealthy, but make sure that we're giving people a hand up and not trying to pull them down. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Together, together, we're going to make sure that Musk and Trump don't win. | ||
| The people, the power belongs to the people. | ||
| People's power will prevail together. | ||
| Tomorrow is going to be better today. | ||
| Thank you all for being out here. | ||
| God bless each and every one of you. | ||
| Thank you, Representative Meeks. | ||
| Let us work. Let us work. Let us work. | ||
| Let us work. | ||
| I'm about to invite Representative Becca Ballant from Vermont up here, but she's going to just answer one question: which is: are you willing to withhold your vote until this constitutional crisis is over? | ||
| Hell yes! | ||
| So, I'm Becca Ballant. | ||
| I represent Vermont. | ||
| I represent, I'm standing up here. | ||
| It's so important for me to be here today to represent rural America Representing all of those folks back home in Vermont that cannot believe that the one place that they are looking to save money is the one place in government that is protecting all of us from the kind of fraudsters and scammers that are in the White House right now. | ||
| Now, one of the things I want you to do right now, I know it's cold, I want you to look around at all of the people who are here today. | ||
| I want you to look around and I want you to see we are all in this together. | ||
| You are not in this alone. | ||
| And we are members of Congress and we have some power, but you, you have the power of your voices. | ||
| And we say we have to legislate. | ||
| We have to litigate. | ||
| We have to agitate. | ||
| And you are out here agitating for all of those people who can't be here today. | ||
| All of those people living at the end of dirt roads in my home state of Vermont. | ||
| Here's the thing. | ||
| I need all of us to think about the way that we are thinking about and talking about our fellow Americans. | ||
| I know that sometimes people will say things like, we're here sticking up for the little guy. | ||
| There is no little guy. | ||
| There are just Americans. | ||
| And everyone deserves a fair shot. | ||
| Everyone deserves a fair shot. | ||
| And we don't help people. | ||
| They help themselves. | ||
| They just want a fair shot. | ||
| That's what this whole thing is about. | ||
| So I want you to think about the way you're thinking about your fellow Americans. | ||
| We are with each other. | ||
| We are with each other. | ||
| We are standing together so that everyone, regardless of where you live in this country, you know you have a chance. | ||
| The same chance that every single other person has, regardless of zip code. | ||
| So here's what I want to say. | ||
| Are you with me? | ||
| Let's do it. | ||
| Representative Bound. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| What are we here? | ||
| We heard legislate, litigate, agitate. | ||
| Legislate, litigate, agitate, legislate, litigate, agitate, legislate, litigate, agitate. | ||
| Okay, we've got Seth Magaziner from Rhode Island who's going to answer a question. | ||
| Are you willing to withhold your vote until this constitutional crisis is over? | ||
| Hell yes. | ||
| All right, hello, everybody. | ||
| I'm Seth Magazineer from Rhode Island, former state treasurer. | ||
| And as a former state treasurer, I can tell you firsthand that the grifters and the scammers will never stop trying to get rich off of the back of working people. | ||
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We have seen that over and over again. | |
| We have seen how they will load up working people with overdraft fees and medical debt and subprime mortgages unless, unless there is someone standing in their way. | ||
| And that is the CFPB. | ||
| The CFPB. | ||
| The CFPB is the cop on the block to make sure that the people are looked out for. | ||
| Now, Donald Trump and Elon Musk don't see it that way. | ||
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They want a government of buy-in for the billionaires. | |
| And no surprise, one of the first things they go after is the CFPB, which has been protecting people from these predatory lenders and scam artists. | ||
| But we are here today because we know that we have the law on our side, we have the people on our side, and we have righteousness on our side, and we are going to win. | ||
| So, To all of you here today who have devoted your lives to service and to helping the average person in this country, thank you. | ||
| Thank you for your patriotism and thank you for your service. | ||
| We have your back. | ||
| And to all of the people watching at home who want that cop on the block, who want to make sure that we have a strong CFPB to fight back against the scammers and the grifters, we have your back too, and we are not going to stop fighting. | ||
| Thank you, everybody. | ||
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Thank you, Representative Man. | |
| Thank you, Representative Magazine. | ||
| I've heard that Representative Jamie Raskin is in the House. | ||
| Is that right? | ||
| Is there a Jamie? | ||
| I don't see him yet. | ||
| We got to say his name a little bit louder. | ||
| J-Me, I've got one question for you, Representative Raskin. | ||
| We've been asking this of everybody. | ||
| Are you willing to withhold your vote until this constitutional crisis is over? | ||
| Multiple times. | ||
| Yes, of course. | ||
| The floor is yours. | ||
| Thank you for what you're doing. | ||
| Hey, everybody. | ||
| You know, I realized a rally a day keeps the fascists away. | ||
| So we've got to keep meeting like this, right? | ||
| You know, I wanted to start by thanking the incredibly hardworking people at the CFPB who have saved. | ||
| I want to thank the people at the CFPB who have saved the American people more than 21 billion dollars from and scam. | ||
| artists like Donald Trump. | ||
| You have saved veterans, armed service members, seniors, working-class Americans, billions of dollars against the institutions that would rip us off. | ||
| That's what government is supposed to be doing. | ||
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If you are saving billions of dollars right now for the plutocrats and the autocrats and the theocrats, the dictators and the bullies and the ripoff artists. | |
| they'd be putting you on the board of the Kennedy Center tonight. | ||
| These people need a basic lesson in the U.S. Constitution. | ||
| Elon Musk didn't create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. | ||
| The representatives of the people of the United States, Congress, created the CFPB. | ||
| And if somebody's going to dismantle it and tear it apart, it would only be the Congress of the United States. | ||
| But the Congress will never do it because the people of America support the CFPB. | ||
| The preamble of the Constitution says, We, the people, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, promote tranquility. | ||
| provide for the common defense, and support the general welfare, and provide to our posterity the blessings of liberty do hereby ordain the Constitution of these United States of America. | ||
| And then the Constitution, in the very next sentence, says, all legislative powers shall be vested in the Congress of the United States. | ||
| That's Article 1. | ||
| You know, I get mad at some of my colleagues, even some of my best friends, who buy this whole thing about co-equal branches, okay? | ||
| First of all, the word co-equal is not a word, okay? | ||
| That's like extremely unique or something like that. | ||
| They want to say we got three equal branches, really? | ||
| Well, why is Congress in Article 1? | ||
| Why are there 18 different sections laying out all the powers of Congress, including Article 1, Section 8, Clause 18, which says and all other powers necessary and proper to execute the foregoing powers? | ||
| And then after all of that, you get to Article 2 about the president, whose core job is what? | ||
| To take care that the laws are faithfully executed. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| Not frustrated, not thwarted, not destroyed. | ||
| And the founders were so emphatic about that in the four short sections in Article 2. | ||
| One of the sections is all about how you impeach a president, okay, for treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors. | ||
| If we're equal branches, why do we have the power to impeach the president and he doesn't have the power to impeach us? | ||
| Okay? | ||
| Why is that? | ||
| I wish Article 2 gave us the power to impeach fake presidents, too. | ||
| Because I'd be putting in articles tomorrow morning to impeach Elon Musk, who couldn't run for president because he wasn't born in the United States. | ||
| And he couldn't get a security clearance, and he didn't win an election. | ||
| He never ran for office, and he's collecting billions of dollars in unconstitutional foreign government emoluments all over the world and collecting, and in violation of the domestic emoluments clause, collecting billions of dollars from the American taxpayers at the same time. | ||
| But my friends, Congress has the law-making power. | ||
| It's the power of the president only to faithfully execute the laws that we've passed. | ||
| The president of the United States himself could not destroy the CFPB. | ||
| So where in the hell does Elon Musk thinks he's got the power to do it? | ||
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Right? | |
| Congressional Democrats are planning to boost their efforts in countering Republican policies. | ||
| Multiple media outlets are reporting on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer laying out his party's strategy to confront the Trump administration with oversight, litigation, and legislation. | ||
| In an open letter to Democrats, Senator Schumer says the party has, quote, a responsibility to fight back on behalf of American families as Republicans look the other way in obedience to Donald Trump. | ||
| Politicos Jordan Carney reports that Senator Schumer's letter comes as Democrats are under pressure to pull out all the stops to try and fight Trump, with government funding being their biggest point of leverage. | ||
| On the other side of Capitol Hill, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has announced a new rapid response and litigation task force for the Democrats. | ||
| According to news reports, the working group is led by top Democrats on the Appropriations, Oversight, and Judiciary Committees. | ||
| You can follow live coverage of Congress on C-SPAN and C-SPAN2 on our website, c-span.org, and on our free mobile video app, C-SPAN Now. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal, our live forum involving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics, and public policy from Washington to across the country. | ||
| Coming up Tuesday morning, California Democratic Congressman Jim Costa on the recent actions by the Trump administration and the role of Democrats in the 119th Congress. |