| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
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Your gift today preserves open access to government and ensures the public stays informed. | |
| Donate now at c-span.org/slash donate or scan the code on your screen. | ||
| Every contribution matters. | ||
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| And now, members of the House Democratic Women's Caucus hold a news conference ahead of President Trump's address to Congress tonight. | ||
| From Capitol Hill, this is about 30 minutes. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
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Bienvenidas a todos. | |
| I'm Congresswoman Teresa Ledra Fernandez, and I have the great joy and honor of being chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus, 96 strong, a historic number this year. | ||
| Yay! | ||
|
unidentified
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And you know what? | |
| We're here to say women cannot afford Trump. | ||
| He costs us too much in terms of money, health, lives, and safety. | ||
| We cannot afford to have 40% of the newborn infants at risk of health complications because their pregnant mommies lost Medicaid coverage. | ||
|
unidentified
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We cannot afford the increased cost of groceries, gas, and housing when Trump decides to declare war on our allies, Canada and Mexico. | |
| We cannot afford him stealing our reproductive health care rights and taking away our decision to make a family when we choose and how we choose. | ||
| We cannot afford the discrimination. | ||
|
unidentified
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We cannot afford the discrimination he is unleashing against women everywhere. | |
| From firing admirals at the Coast Guard to cutting women's health research and slashing programs to combat violence against women. | ||
| These are not woke programs. | ||
| These programs affect over half of our population. | ||
|
unidentified
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Damn it, respect women. | |
| Discrimination and violence against women should be condemned by everyone. | ||
|
unidentified
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Republicans and Democrats alike. | |
| We cannot afford the increased child care cost when he cuts Head Start and the Department of Education. | ||
| We cannot afford to take care of our grandmothers and our parents when they cut the programs that pay for their nursing home care. | ||
| From cradle to old age, this man and the Republican agenda is devastating for America's women. | ||
|
unidentified
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We want the world to know we stand in protest, we stand in power, we stand in pink, and we stand in opposition, don't we, Mojeres? | |
| Yeah. | ||
| We want to remind everyone that it only takes three. | ||
| It only takes three members of the Republicans in the House of Representatives who are willing to show up at a town hall, who are willing to answer for the cuts they are doing, who are willing to stand with their constituents and not with these horrible cuts that affect women everywhere. | ||
| Stand with your women constituents. | ||
| Stand with your women voters. | ||
| We are. | ||
| Stand with women. | ||
| Stand with women. | ||
| I'm going to turn the program over right now to my amazing vice chair because we have lots of voices of protest about what Trump is doing to the women of America across America. | ||
| Amelia Sykes. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Woo! | ||
| Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to all of you for joining us today because we want to make sure our message is very clear. | ||
| Women cannot afford these policies and women cannot afford this presidency. | ||
| I want to thank all of the members of the Democratic Women's Caucus for being here, for joining us and having such a strong showing of what it means to stand up for the American women. | ||
| My name is Amelia Sykes and I proudly represent Ohio's 13th congressional district. | ||
| And as you heard from Chair Leger Fernandez, we cannot afford Donald Trump's policies. | ||
| Now, we always talk about how we are willing to work with anyone, anywhere, anytime, and the case is still true. | ||
| But as we have heard over and over and over again, the cuts are going to be dramatic and their impacts are going to hit women the hardest. | ||
| For example, last week there was a House Republican budget resolution that demanded an $880 billion cut to the Energy and Commerce Committee. | ||
| And I like to remind people, write down $880 billion and see how many zeros and commas you end up writing. | ||
| That means there must be cuts to the Medicaid program. | ||
| The Medicaid program that makes sure that women, pregnant women, children, the disabled, our grandmothers have access to the health care they need when they need it the most. | ||
| And for example, in my district, Ohio's 13th congressional district, Medicaid covers over 40% of the births in our district. | ||
| 40% of the births. | ||
| And let us not forget about we love the babies, but the women who deliver those babies are also offered coverage under Medicaid. | ||
| In Ohio's 13th congressional district, more than 200,000 people on Medicaid are at risk of losing their health care because of this Republican budget resolution. | ||
| This is 83,000 children and nearly 18,000 seniors. | ||
| And while a majority of the people in my district voted for the president, they did not vote to get their grandmothers kicked out of the nursing homes. | ||
| That's right. | ||
| But I would be remiss if I did not say, while Medicaid coverage is obviously a huge issue and we care about the health care that people are able to access or not access, in my district, the largest employer are health care systems. | ||
| They are being paid by the Medicaid program to help employ doctors and nurses and food service individuals and sanitarians. | ||
| These jobs are going to be on the line if the $880 billion cuts go into effect like the Republicans want. | ||
| So it is not just about the health care. | ||
| It is about the local economy in Ohio's 13th district that will be decimated if this plan goes through and people will be laid off all over Ohio's 13th district because of this cruel cut. | ||
| We cannot afford these policies. | ||
| Any cuts to Medicaid will have far-reaching effects and we will see that devastation for many years to come. | ||
| As I conclude my remarks and before I hand the program over to my capable and competent and caring co-chair Hillary Sculton from Michigan, I want to invoke Sir Journal Truth. | ||
| You may recall she gave a little speech called A Ni Woman and she happened to give that speech in Ohio's 13th congressional district in my hometown of Akron. | ||
| And at the very end of that speech, she reminded us, and I'm going to remind all of you and my colleagues to keep us encouraged in this time. | ||
| She said, if the first woman that God ever made was strong enough to turn this world upside down, then all of these women together ought to be able to get it right side up again. | ||
| And that is exactly what we are going to do, invoking the spirit of Sir Journal Truth. | ||
| We are going to get this world upside back upside again because we cannot afford these policies. | ||
| And that is why we are going to fight every single day on behalf of the American people. | ||
| So please join me in welcoming Hillary Schulton of the great state of Michigan. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Amelia. | ||
| It is such an honor to lead this caucus with you and our incredible chair, Teresa Eleja Fernandez, at this time for women in our history. | ||
| Congresswoman Hillary Sculton, proudly representing Michigan's third congressional district, the first woman and mother in history to represent the entire western half of our state in Congress. | ||
| Tonight, Donald Trump will stand before Congress in the people's house and deliver his vision for our country. | ||
| Behind the slogans and empty promises, his agenda is one that will devastate women and families across America. | ||
| And nowhere is that clearer than in his and the House Republicans' relentless efforts to rip health care away from millions of Americans. | ||
| They tried to come for Medicare. | ||
| It fell flat. | ||
| They tried to come for the Affordable Care Act. | ||
| It fell flat, just like that sign. | ||
| And now they're coming for Medicaid. | ||
| Medicaid is a lifeline for millions of Americans. | ||
| In Michigan, it provides health coverage for 2.3 million people, nearly a quarter of our state. | ||
| That includes nearly 40% of all children and one in three moms and newborns. | ||
| Medicaid is the backbone of our health system, and Trump wants to rip it away. | ||
| If Trump and House Republicans get their way, Michigan families will be left making impossible choices. | ||
| Moms will be forced to choose between paying their rent and putting food on the table or their children's life-saving medications. | ||
| Parents, like a mother in my district I recently spoke with whose two young daughters were born with congenital cataracts and glaucoma will be left wondering whether they can afford the life-changing treatments that keep their children from going blind. | ||
| No mother should ever have to put a price tag on their child's future, but that is exactly what Trump and House Republicans are pushing. | ||
| Listen carefully. | ||
| Listen carefully to what they're saying tonight. | ||
| They'll say things like the budget proposal doesn't mention Medicaid once, but what they're not saying, what they are not saying, and they could say is that they will protect Medicaid because they have no intention of doing that. | ||
| And what they will do is rip it away. | ||
| Let's be honest about who gets hit hardest, women. | ||
| Whether it's a new mother who needs postpartum care, a woman managing a chronic condition, or a family caregiver trying to keep her aging parents safe and healthy. | ||
| These cuts are a direct attack on women's health and economic security. | ||
| Trump and House Republicans are trying to disguise these cuts as fiscal responsibility. | ||
| But slashing health care for children, seniors, and working families isn't responsible. | ||
| It's cruel. | ||
| It's an assault on the dignity and well-being of the 18 million women and 40 million children who rely on Medicaid across the country. | ||
| And we will not stand for it. | ||
| The Democratic Women's Caucus will keep fighting for every family, every child, every mother who depends on Medicaid. | ||
| We will fight against these reckless, heartless cuts. | ||
| And we will never stop fighting to ensure that health care is a right, not a privilege, for every American. | ||
| We have no greater champion in this fight than the fearless leader of our caucus, our Democratic whip, Catherine Clark. | ||
| Thank you, Hillary. | ||
| I am so thrilled to be here with the Democratic Women's Caucus. | ||
| We are a powerful voice for women across this country and for families at home. | ||
| So we are six weeks in to the Republican trifecta. | ||
|
unidentified
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They control the House, the Senate, the White House. | |
| They have the power to deliver for whoever they want to. | ||
| And who have they chosen to fight for? | ||
| The billionaire class, the ultra-rich donors who funded their campaigns. | ||
| Billionaires who have virtually unlimited resources but still want more. | ||
| And where is this money coming from for tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy? | ||
| They're taking it from families, from women, from moms, from grandparents, from sick children. | ||
| Elon Musk makes more in one day than NIH spends all year on childhood cancer research. | ||
| More in one day, but that hasn't stopped him from stripping out and defunding that research, or cutting children's health care, or slashing their school budgets, or taking away school lunches, or going after Social Security and Medicare. | ||
| And the House GOP is falling in line, following orders and letting him do it, because they aren't going to feel the consequences personally. | ||
| We all are about cutting waste and making our government work more efficiently for people. | ||
| We just disagree that the waste here are kids who had been diagnosed with cancer. | ||
| There are few nightmares that I can imagine more terrible than learning your child has a serious diagnosis. | ||
| What a heartless act of cruelty to tell a mom that her government is now defining the research her child needs to survive as waste and inefficiency. | ||
| That's what Republicans have chosen to do. | ||
| It is America's most vulnerable, our kids, who are going to pay the price. | ||
| And I am joined by a constituent who knows this far too well. | ||
| Sarah Rabowski, we are so grateful for you coming today, sharing your journey, telling us about your son Declan and the fight you're in. | ||
| Thank you for being here. | ||
| Please welcome Sarah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you so much for having me. | |
| I really appreciate it. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| My name is Sarah Robleski and I am here today as the mom of the bravest four-year-old you'll ever meet, my son Declan. | ||
| He's right here. | ||
| In August of 2023, after weeks of headaches, an MRI revealed a golf ball-sized tumor in the back of his brain. | ||
| Declan was diagnosed with stage four brain cancer. | ||
| In an instant, our world became numb. | ||
| Declan received six intense rounds of high-dose chemotherapy and three stem cell transplants over a period of months. | ||
| The treatment was excruciating. | ||
| It was toxic. | ||
| It left him with significant impairments from hearing loss to brain damage, but Declan never stopped fighting and it worked for now. | ||
| Declan's doctors, though, tell us his cancer is the kind that comes back and it always comes back. | ||
| Nine months post-treatment, Declan is part of a new clinical trial now, and his scans continue to be clear, nothing short of remarkable. | ||
| When your child is diagnosed with cancer, you know the road will be challenging and our family was prepared for a lot. | ||
| But I never imagined that I would be asked to come here to Washington to beg our government to do right by our kids. | ||
| I am here on behalf of all the parents right now who are sitting in hospital rooms with their children. | ||
| When it comes to finding less toxic treatments and life-saving cures for kids battling cancer, we don't have a single day to spare. | ||
| This is not about politics, bureaucracy, or efficiencies. | ||
| It's about families who are literally holding their breath, hoping tomorrow brings the breakthrough that will save their child's life. | ||
| Cutting NIH funding will cost those families, cost my family precious hope, and it will certainly cost children their lives. | ||
| Even a slight pause or interruption on ongoing studies will have devastating consequences. | ||
| NIH studies have helped keep Declan alive, and it could very well be an NIH study right now that saves his life in the future. | ||
| Please protect the funding. | ||
| Help save our kids. | ||
| Our Declan is a fighter, and now we need you all to fight alongside him. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| So you're hearing from the Democratic Women's Caucus, but you're going to be hearing from all members of the Democrat caucus today about the lives and stories about the pain that Trump is inflicting on Americans. | ||
| It is important that we bring that pain to Washington, D.C. so that it is clear what these cuts do. | ||
| I want to bring up to the podium now our co-chair of policy, Sidney Kamlagodov. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Chairwoman Teresa Legere Fernandez. | |
| Thank you, Whip Clark, for being here. | ||
| I stand in solidarity with all of my female sisters in the Democratic Women's Caucus. | ||
| I'm Sidney Kamlager-Dove. | ||
| I represent California's 37th congressional district. | ||
| And I'm here to tell you that Donald Trump does three things consistently. | ||
| He lies, he cheats, and he steals. | ||
| He's lying about saying that shrinking the federal workforce will increase government efficiency. | ||
| He is cheating the American people out of a government that we all deserve. | ||
| And he is stealing billions of our taxpayer dollars by cutting Social Security, by cutting Medicaid, by firing workers left and right. | ||
| He is stealing billions of our dollars and giving them to his billionaire boys club. | ||
| Anyone who says that missing Social Security payments is okay. | ||
| Anyone who tells you that kicking children off of food assistance is okay. | ||
| Anyone who tells you that it is okay to cut or get rid of Medicaid, and I have to tell you that in my district, I have the fourth largest Medicaid enrollment numbers in the country. | ||
| Anyone who tells you that cutting that program to the bone is okay. | ||
| Anyone who tells you that getting rid of FEMA is okay. | ||
| I represent Los Angeles. | ||
| We are suffering from urban fires. | ||
| I was at an event just two weeks ago. | ||
| 2,000 families showed up to try and get assistance and rebuild their lives. | ||
| And you know what table they stopped at? | ||
| The FEMA table. | ||
| And you know who was processing their applications? | ||
| Women workers at FEMA who had traveled from Georgia and other parts of the country to help our families get their lives back on track. | ||
| So anyone who tells you that these cuts are okay is an unwell person. | ||
| And you should run far away from them and then you should kick them out of office. | ||
| I am bringing tonight Ms. Sylvia. | ||
| Ms. Sylvia worked for 34 years at USAID. | ||
| USAID is an important program. | ||
| But because folks, as she said, anybody who was doing anything was let go. | ||
| And this included pregnant women workers who then miscarried because they had been fired and lost their health insurance. | ||
| New mothers who had just purchased a house with their entire savings and now they've been fired. | ||
| Women who were involved in IVF treatments to have babies were given 15 minutes to pack up their stuff and get out like criminals. | ||
| This is not okay. | ||
| And we are here to tell it to this man's face. | ||
| Stop disrespecting the American people. | ||
| Stop stealing our taxpayer dollars. | ||
| Stop making eggs $15 while not keeping planes up in the sky. | ||
| And stop lying. | ||
| Stop lying to our faces. | ||
| Because all of these actions only show us that you don't care about this country. | ||
| You don't care about the American people. | ||
| You don't care about mothers and their children. | ||
| You don't care about this country. | ||
| And that is unacceptable if you claim to be the President of the United States. | ||
| So we are here. | ||
| We are not going anywhere. | ||
| We are going to continue to fight back. | ||
| And we are going to continue to speak lies to his truth, to his stealing, and to his cheating. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you very much. | |
| And yes, it is indeed lies because when you say you're doing these senseless, heartless, destructive cuts on the basis of efficiency, let me tell you about my guest. | ||
|
unidentified
|
She first volunteered to help out veterans when she was 11. | |
| Her father is a veteran. | ||
| Her grandfather is a veteran. | ||
| She's married to a military personnel. | ||
| And guess what her job was after 15 years serving the VA, improving efficiency? | ||
| But because she had gotten a promotion, she got fired. | ||
| She's going to be here telling that truth. | ||
| But I want to just open it up real quickly. | ||
| The Democratic Women's Caucus, we have this wonderful tradition of doing these rapid fire. | ||
| Tell us your name and why are you out here in protest against her? | ||
| April McLean-Delady, Maryland 6. | ||
| I'm standing as a mother of four daughters. | ||
| Standing against. | ||
| You know, the defunding of critical research, including research which impacts our kids and our families, and the taking of personal information of our citizens and the takeover of data from our systems terrible for families. | ||
| I'm lawyer, Kameka Iber, representing New Jersey's 10th congressional district, and in New Jersey, we cannot afford Trump and we will not afford Trump. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, I am Nally Paul from the 9th congressional district in New Jersey and i'm here standing along with my sisters against the, this administration and the and the attack that he has on women, family and children, and we will not stand for it. | |
| Let me actually talk. | ||
| I said I wasn't gonna talk because we've had so many amazing speakers, but I really just want to sum up kind of what we've heard. | ||
| Um, you know, I know that there are going to be those that are going to say things like, oh well, the DIM Women Caucus got out there and they only talked about women's issues. | ||
| I want to be clear about one thing, women's issues, they are all of our issues, because the last time I checked, we all came from a woman and so to hear the story of a mother talk about her fight for her child, I want to make clear that when we hear the stories of the economic impact. | ||
| These are stories that are impacting all of us. | ||
| It's not just women, unfortunately. | ||
| We had an opportunity to have a woman leave this country and I promise you she would have led us to the promised land, but instead we got somebody that seems like he wants to take us to hell and back again. | ||
| But i'm trying to tell y'all that we, the women of the DWC, will not stand for that. | ||
| We won't stand for cruelty when we can have kindness. | ||
| We won't stand for greed over good. | ||
| We won't stand for fealty over fearlessness. | ||
| On behalf of our constituents, right now, what we have is criminality versus constitutionality. | ||
| So I am asking, I am pleading with the American people to tap into your power, because we know that the power has always been with the people. | ||
| It is time for you to rise up. | ||
| One of the things that our fearless leader has said is that we are the resistance, but we can't resist without you. | ||
| We only hold these seats as your representation and I promise you we are going to fight until the end to make sure that your voices and your stories are not put on mute. | ||
| But at the end of the day, we need you to keep showing up and showing out whether you have a Republican who acts like they don't want to listen to you. | ||
| Show up to those town halls. | ||
| Whether you have a Democrat. | ||
| Continue to encourage them to fight for what makes sense, not just for some, but for all of us in this country. | ||
| So with that I say god bless, but make sure y'all stand with women because, listen again, if we would have had a woman in power, we wouldn't have to have this conversation. | ||
| Okay, thank you, and uh, with that uh, I think we're coming to her, and are there any questions? | ||
| Hi, congresswoman Grace, I want to ask you first about the choice to wear pink. | ||
| I know in previous years women have worn white yes so uh, we chose to to you know, we have worn white and there will be some women in white, because we have worn white to remind people about the suffragetists and the importance of women's vote. | ||
| This year, you're going to see, you're seeing a lot of women wear pink because, we need to remember, women are claiming pink as a color of protest, as a color of power, and we are protesting what is happening right now, both with the Republicans in the House, in the Senate and and at the White House, and so that's why you're seeing pink as a color of protest and let's say, you know we are reclaiming our power. | ||
| We have never given up our power and this is a color of power and of protest, Anything else? | ||
| And with that, thank you very much for coming on out. | ||
| have lots of amazing events happening throughout the day and hopefully you'll cover them. | ||
| Tonight, watch C-SPAN's live coverage of President Trump's address to Congress, the first address of his second term, and less than two months since taking office. | ||
| C-SPAN's live coverage begins at 8 p.m. Eastern with a preview of the evening from Capitol Hill, followed by the President's speech, which begins at 9 p.m. Eastern. | ||
| And then watch the Democratic response after the President's speech. | ||
| We'll also take your calls and get your reaction on social media. | ||
| Over on C-SPAN 2, you can also watch a simulcast of the evening's coverage, followed by reaction from lawmakers live from Capitol Hill. | ||
| Watch President Trump's address to Congress live tonight, beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN, our simulcast live on C-SPAN 2, or on C-SPAN Now, our free mobile video app. | ||
| Also online at c-SPAN.org. | ||
| c-span bringing you your democracy unfiltered discover the heartbeat of democracy with c-span's voices as we hear from you ahead of president trump's address to congress We're asking what you'd like to hear from the President during his speech. | ||
| My name is Laurie Goglersh from Elizabethtown, Kentucky. | ||
| I like to hear the president talk about why he acted the way he did with Zelensky. | ||
| I think that it's a disgrace, really. | ||
| It was an embarrassment for all Americans to see that performance in the Oval Office. | ||
| My name is Chris Ricardo. | ||
| I'm from Chicago, and I'd love the President to talk about keeping the Antiquities Act the way it is. | ||
| I'm here from Chicago advocating for America's Red Rock Wilderness Act for the Utah Wilderness Coalition and the National Wilderness Coalition, which is the Sierra Club, National Resource Defense Council, and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. | ||
| We're trying to protect over 8 million acres of federal public lands, your lands, in Utah. | ||
| Hello, my name is Meredith Duran. | ||
| I'm from Prescott, Arizona. | ||
| I work for the VA there. | ||
| I would like to have the President address the back to work for all employees. | ||
| Some of us employees work very well at home, and when our VA building is cramped for space as it is, I think it would be very beneficial if a lot of the employees were able to stay at home and continue to work like we have been. | ||
| I think it should be according to our productivity and not just because of our location. | ||
| I think you're doing a great job, and I'm very happy with everything, but that would be a subject I'd like you to address. | ||
| C-SPAN's Voices, delivering democracy unfiltered. | ||
| Be part of the conversation. | ||
| 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 Wednesday morning, we're getting your reaction to President Donald Trump's address to Congress. | ||
| Join the conversation all morning with your live phone calls, text messages, and social media comments. | ||
| C-SPAN's Washington Journal. | ||
| Join the conversation live at 7 Eastern Wednesday morning on C-SPAN. | ||
| C-SPAN now or online at c-span.org. | ||
| Democracy is always an unfinished creation. | ||
| Democracy is worth dying for. | ||
| Democracy belongs to us all. | ||
| We are here in the sanctuary of democracy. | ||
| Great responsibilities fall once again to the great democracies. | ||
| American democracy is bigger than any one person. | ||
| Freedom and democracy must be constantly guarded and protected. | ||
| We are still at our core a democracy. |