| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Yes, it is. | |
| Would you hold one moment, please, for the president? | ||
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| You can keep democracy unfiltered today and for future generations. | ||
| To the American people, now is the time to tune in to C-SPAN. | ||
|
unidentified
|
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. | ||
| And thank you. | ||
| Up next, House Republican leaders speak to reporters ahead of President Trump's address to Congress this evening. | ||
| I know. | ||
| You guys are trying to hide me behind it. | ||
| It's not very. | ||
| Oh, come on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I know. | |
| I know. | ||
| Good morning, everyone. | ||
| Thank you so much for coming. | ||
| Let's start off by the deranged Democrats are living in a distorted reality. | ||
| Over the weekend, the minority leader told CNN, and I quote: President Trump is not focused on solving the problems of everyday Americans. | ||
| I can't believe the minority leader would say this, but he did. | ||
| The irony about the minority leaders' comments is President Trump is solving the problems of everyday Americans. | ||
| For example, the comment comes after Democrats voted against securing our border and making our communities safe. | ||
| Meanwhile, President Trump has secured our borders. | ||
| He has only been in office for less than two months. | ||
| And in the Democrats' distorted reality, President Trump is to blame for all the world's problems. | ||
| He inherited these problems, when in reality, Democrats are the ones who caused the problems. | ||
| Illegal aliens flooded our borders because Democrats kept them open. | ||
| Democrats let killers like Jose Ibarra come into our communities. | ||
| And Democrats keep voting against fixing these problems. | ||
| Let's be clear. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But I can share with you, times they are a change in. | |
| Common sense has been restored. | ||
| Illegal border crossings were the lowest ever recorded last month. | ||
| How's that? | ||
| By taking care of the American people's problems. | ||
| Our communities are actually safer. | ||
| President Trump is keeping his promises that he made to the American people after four years of silence and shadows from Joe Biden and the Democrats. | ||
| President Trump has restored accountability and transparency at the White House. | ||
| He's actually answering unscripted questions from the press. | ||
| Americans actually see the president working for them daily. | ||
| This is a stark contrast from the past four years. | ||
| And Americans are actually excited. | ||
| President Trump is turning our country around. | ||
| He is reversing the damage caused by Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the deranged Democrats. | ||
| I expect Americans will notice the new direction of the nation when we hear from our Commander-in-Chief this evening. | ||
| In his first joint address since returning to the White House, President Trump message to the American people will be clear. | ||
| America is back. | ||
| There's no doubt about that. | ||
| Thanks to President Trump's, America is strong again. | ||
| Terrorists are actually on notice. | ||
| Our enemies and adversaries actually fear and respect us again. | ||
| especially our allies. | ||
| America will no longer be taken advantage of. | ||
| This was made clear in the Oval Office on Friday. | ||
| So let's be clear. | ||
| The war in Ukraine started while Joe Biden was president. | ||
| I just got to remind everyone of those facts. | ||
| And President Trump is the president that's actually trying to end it. | ||
| So one president starts the war. | ||
| The other president actually tries to end the war. | ||
| He inherited this mess from Biden. | ||
| I know the Democrats want you to forget about that, but every once in a while we have to reset that playing field and remind people. | ||
| In less than two months, President Trump has restored peace through strength and turned the page on Biden's blunders on the world stage. | ||
| But that's just one of his many accomplishments. | ||
| President Trump is working at an unprecedented pace. | ||
| He's putting America and its people first. | ||
| That's exactly what we just heard from our Secretary of Defense. | ||
| The President's efforts to rid the Department of Defense of DEI has been profoundly positive. | ||
| Soldiers are actually excited to be focused on the actual mission, lethality and preparedness, not weakness and wokeness. | ||
| The president is rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer dollars at the Pentagon. | ||
| As I mentioned, he returned to the White House and has set Democrats into complete and utter disarray. | ||
| They have no vision, no plan, and no leader. | ||
| They only have one thing to offer the American people, and that's fear-mongering. | ||
| This has caused a messaging crisis in the Democratic Party. | ||
| They are clearly scrambling. | ||
| The main goal is to be against, for the Democrats, their main goal is to be against what 77 million American people want. | ||
| And the House Republicans are calling them out for it. | ||
| Look no further than tomorrow's oversight committee hearing on sanctuary cities. | ||
| Democrats' radical policies will be on full display, and I encourage you all to watch. | ||
| Americans will be reminded that Democrats protect killers, rapists, and drug dealers who find safe haven in sanctuary cities. | ||
| For example, a Sudanese national who was convicted of raping a victim under 13 years old. | ||
| A Mexican national convicted of a sexual, a criminal sexual conduct on a victim under 13 years old. | ||
| Both were arrested by ICE in St. Paul, Minnesota, a sanctuary city. | ||
| And what do deranged Democrats in Minnesota have to say? | ||
| They say, well, targeting criminal, illegal immigrants threatens their safe spaces. | ||
| Threatens the safe spaces of whom? | ||
| Listen to what the Democrats are saying. | ||
| Instead of showing empathy, they are siding with and protecting criminals, violent, illegal, alien criminals. | ||
| Meanwhile, Republicans actually stand with the victims. | ||
| We actually stand for legal. | ||
| We actually stand for law and order. | ||
| What about the American people's safe spaces? | ||
| Do they count? | ||
| House Republicans will hold these mayors accountable. | ||
| Refusing to cooperate with immigration law puts communities and Americans in danger. | ||
| But it doesn't stop there. | ||
| Even in the U.S. House of Representatives, deranged Democrats hold briefings and post videos on how to avoid ICE. | ||
| That's pretty American, huh? | ||
| They are literally helping criminal, illegal immigrants. | ||
| This is a result of having no vision for the American people. | ||
| But I'm here to share with you Americans can be optimistic because real leadership returned to the White House. | ||
| Leadership that our country desperately needs. | ||
| The leadership 77 million Americans voted for. | ||
| Together, President Trump and House Republicans will stop sanctuary cities. | ||
| Sanctuary City policies are wreaking havoc on our communities, like the ones Representative Gabe Evans represents in the northern Denver suburbs. | ||
| Rep Evans has joined us today to help tell the local stories, like the story of the Trende Diagua, who took over an apartment complex in the Denver suburbs. | ||
| They used it to kidnap and torture people at gunpoint. | ||
| Not real good people. | ||
| It's a shame that this is happening in America. | ||
| But I'll turn it over now to Gabe to let him tell his story. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, thank you, Chairwoman, Gabe Evans from Colorado's 8th Congressional District. | |
| And I was a police officer in the Denver metro area for over a decade. | ||
| In fact, today I'm still wearing my police boots. | ||
| They're on their third set of soles because that is what keeps me grounded and reminds me why I'm here. | ||
| My morning routine hasn't changed in 14 years because here in Congress I'm focused on serving the victims of these crimes that you just heard the chairwoman talk about. | ||
| Let's talk some of the statistics that have happened in Colorado as a result of these sanctuary policies. | ||
| When I started my law enforcement career, Colorado was 31st in the nation for our crime rate. | ||
| We're now number four. | ||
| Colorado is number two in the nation for teenagers overdosing and dying on illegal drugs, predominantly fentanyl. | ||
| Colorado is once again got the highest rate of motor vehicle theft out of all of the 50 states. | ||
| As a police officer for over a decade in the Denver metro area, I saw firsthand what was contributing to these problems, and a significant percentage of the blame lays on sanctuary city and state policies that allow violent transnational criminal organizations and cartels to come into our community and find safe harbor. | ||
| Recent headline news in Colorado showed that violent gangs like Trende Aragua have looked at Denver, Colorado to be their national headquarters as a result of these sanctuary policies. | ||
| In fact, very recently, ICE in Denver sent out a tweet where they highlighted that the Denver City and County jail would not honor ICE immigration detainers. | ||
| And as a result, they released a Trende Aragua gang member back into the public. | ||
| Immigration and customs officers had to go into the public to arrest this individual again who assaulted officers in the process. | ||
| This does not keep our communities safe. | ||
| This does not protect the victims of these crimes. | ||
| We know where this fentanyl is coming from. | ||
| In fact, every month, the death toll of fentanyl in the United States is greater than the total death toll of the September 11th terrorist attacks. | ||
| And so, with the designation of these cartels as terrorist organizations, it's incumbent that sanctuary cities and states get on board with the program and focus on protecting their communities and focus on allowing law enforcement to be able to work with their federal counterparts to be able to degrade and disrupt these criminal organizations that are operating in our communities and peddling poison by using immigration laws to be able to get these violent cartels, | ||
| get these violent traffickers of people out of our community by using immigration laws and by being able to use that partnership with the federal law enforcement apparatus. | ||
| And so, tomorrow in the hearing, we are going to highlight how these sanctuary city and state policies fail public safety, make America less safe, and why we need to continue to pave the path forward to build those safe communities that we all deserve. | ||
| I am of Hispanic descent, and so I can speak particularly to the fact that this is something that is critically important to the Hispanic communities. | ||
| Hispanic communities critically want safe places to be able to raise the next generation here in the United States of America. | ||
| And tomorrow, we're going to highlight how we get these policies in sanctuary cities and states reversed to give that safe future for all Americans, particularly in places like Colorado and Denver. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| Thanks, Gabe. | ||
| Tonight, President Trump will address Congress and the American people to highlight his historic actions and bold vision to renew the American dream. | ||
| I have no doubt it's going to be big. | ||
| The president's first 43 days in office can be summed up in four words. | ||
| Promises made, promises kept. | ||
| From bringing back American manufacturing with over $1.7 trillion in new investments, to saving taxpayers billions by rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government, to reestablishing peace through strength and America's position on the world stage, to paving the way for our country to achieve energy independence once again, and ending the crisis at our southern border, | ||
| resulting in the lowest border numbers in history and even driving reverse immigration. | ||
| Reverse migration. | ||
| President Trump has delivered countless victories to celebrate tonight. | ||
| And if it's a preview of what's to come, which I believe it is, America has a great four years to look forward to as President Trump renews the American dream and unlocks our country's golden age. | ||
| Now, before I go, I want to say that I'm also looking forward to welcoming my guests for the joint address tonight in the Capitol. | ||
| Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Daymuth is going to join us. | ||
| And hockey legends, gold medalists from 1980, Buzz Schneider and Rob McClannon, Rob McClanahan, these three certainly represent the best of Minnesota and the American spirit. | ||
| And with that, I turn it over to our leader. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right. | |
| Well, let me first say happy Mardi Gras, everybody. | ||
| Today is Mardi Gras Day in my home city of New Orleans. | ||
| This is a Mardi Gras king cake, which we enjoy to celebrate the day. | ||
| This is not to torture you. | ||
| This is to let you know I've gotten this for each of you, so it's all cut up. | ||
| I'm going to pass this around. | ||
| You don't have to write nice stories about me. | ||
| You can, but this is, we like to share our celebration. | ||
| There'll be about a million people from all around the world on the streets of New Orleans celebrating with the crew of Zulu, the crew of Rex, riding, and it's a great family event. | ||
| My kids, my parents took me to Mardi Gras parades when I was a kid, and we take our kids now and pass that tradition on. | ||
| I am so glad to be with all of you today, but I wish I was in New Orleans celebrating Mardi Gras. | ||
| But here, put your cameras down for a minute. | ||
| Take a piece, pass it around. | ||
| If you get the baby, the tradition is there's a plastic baby in one of the slices. | ||
| That means you have to throw the next Kingcake party. | ||
| So we'll let you know where to get the cake, and you'll want more, believe me. | ||
| Anyway, on that note, so we start off on a really good note. | ||
| We love to celebrate things. | ||
| We are celebrating a lot tonight. | ||
| President Trump is going to be celebrating the renewal of the American dream. | ||
| And he's going to go into a lot of detail about how his agenda not only is starting to be carried out in just less than two months. | ||
| It's been a riveting pace that President Trump took to start getting our country back on track, but the work is just beginning. | ||
| Here in the House, and obviously Congress has to play a critical role in helping the president do this. | ||
| Part of that is passing President Trump's agenda. | ||
| And one of the things we did from the Speaker on down is committed to getting the agenda moved through one big, beautiful bill, which means budget reconciliation, starting that process by passing a budget so that we can get to the reconciliation phase. | ||
| And last week, with an overwhelming not one vote to spare, literally just by the margin we needed, which is all it takes, right? | ||
| We passed our budget to the Senate to start the process of putting into law the things we need to do to deliver on that Trump agenda that 77 million people went to the polls to give all of us a mandate to do. | ||
| In fact, the American people insisted that we do these things to reverse the damage from the Biden-Harris agenda. | ||
| Number one, stave off a tax increase. | ||
| Make sure that middle-class families don't see a massive tax hike. | ||
| And notice every Democrat voted no last week, which means Democrats voted to put a tax on over 99% of families that make less than a million dollars. | ||
| You hear him talking about millionaires and billionaires. | ||
| The people that would be hurt by Democrat actions are people that make well under a million dollars. | ||
| President Trump's trying to eliminate the tax on tips, which, by the way, we support and will be in our package. | ||
| The average salary of tip workers who will benefit from President Trump's agenda is a family making about $35,000 a year. | ||
| That's who will benefit from that provision. | ||
| You know, and they talk about billionaires and Elon Musk all day long because they want to hide the fact that it's middle and lower income families who will benefit from the Trump agenda because those are the people that have been devastated the most by the high inflation, high taxes, high cost of living we've seen from the Biden agenda. | ||
| More energy production in America, manufacturing more things in America. | ||
| That's in our bill. | ||
| And it's going to be in this package that moves through. | ||
| And for some reason, every Democrat wants to vote no on an agenda that lowers gas prices, lowers food costs. | ||
| When people complain about the price of eggs, you can try to make political hay about it. | ||
| You can try to do something about it. | ||
| And you do something about it by lowering the energy costs, the cost to get products to the grocery store. | ||
| And every Democrat voted no because they are okay with those families paying more. | ||
| Well, families are fed up. | ||
| And President Trump's going to be laying out tonight the things not only that he's already done, he's done a phenomenal job at getting the border secure. | ||
| We need to do our part at funding the wall, funding the technology for our Border Patrol agents. | ||
| That's also in our bill. | ||
| But President Trump is finally starting to bring manufacturing back to this country. | ||
| The WIP talked about almost $2 trillion in private investment that's already being announced by some major companies, some major American companies, some countries and foreign nations that want to now come and build things in America because of President Trump's leadership. | ||
| Leadership matters, and I think you're going to see great, strong leadership tonight in the President's State of the Union. | ||
| We will be there, looking forward to it. | ||
| The man sitting right behind the President, we know tonight the President's speech will not get ripped up by a Speaker of the House because our Speaker of the House has been leading the cause to usher in this agenda of a renewal of the American dream. | ||
| Our Speaker Mike Johnson. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Leader. | |
| Thanks to all of you. | ||
| No, we will not be ripping up the speech tonight. | ||
| I would like to frame it in gilded gold, but I'm not sure how to do that from the podium. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I want to welcome you all and happy Mardi Gras. | |
| And if I had forethought, I would have brought beads to throw at you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You would have had the whole experience. | |
| We had a great weekend. | ||
| Let me give you a recap on a few things. | ||
| We had a great weekend down in Florida. | ||
| We had the House Republicans gathered in Miami for an NRCC winter retreat. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's an annual tradition, and the vibe is so good among Republicans. | |
| We had our largest attendance ever. | ||
| The most members ever participated with their families, and lots of friends and donors and supporters of the cause were down there with us in a great time. | ||
| We understand that nobody really wants to talk about 2026 yet, the midterm cycle, but we are because we are very excited about what that is going to yield. | ||
| We're in a very strong position to defy what is the norm. | ||
| It's not traditionally expected for a new president to pick up seats in that first two-year midterm for his party, but we are going to grow the majority next year, and we have a great plan to do that. | ||
| We will be riding the wave of the popularity of President Trump's policies, and he is doing some things that everybody in the country is excited about. | ||
| Once all this is signed into law, the American people are going to begin to feel real relief at the pump and their bank account and in safer communities. | ||
| This set of policies is what the President ran on, and all of us ran on, and we'll be checking the boxes along the way. | ||
| Napoleon continues to show the American people are with us on the issues. | ||
|
unidentified
|
In Congress, we have the highest approval rating in four years. | |
| Among Republicans, in our party, we have the highest approval rating in over 20 years. | ||
| You have to go back to August of 2005 to see similar numbers. | ||
| And I think the reason for that is because we're restoring common sense. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That is the theme that the president keeps reiterating over and over. | |
| We're restoring what makes sense to the people. | ||
| And this contrast between our policies and our ideas and this common sense agenda is very different than our Democrat colleagues. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They are defending wasteful government spending right now. | |
| They're opposing tax cuts for working families. | ||
| They're supporting open borders in sanctuary cities, you heard about this morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And they're doing all that above the well-being of the American people. | |
| And the American people are taking note. | ||
| And while House Democrats struggle to find a message that hasn't already been rejected by the American people, House Republicans are going to continue to deliver for the country. | ||
| Speaking of delivering for the American people, President Trump makes his triumphant return, of course, tonight, as was mentioned. | ||
| It's five years after his last State of the Union address. | ||
| This is a joint address to Congress, not a State of the Union, because a State of the Union is typically delivered on or around the sort of the one-year anniversary first year in office. | ||
| But this president is working so quickly, I invited him to come early in the process to give this joint address because there's so much to report to the people. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And we're delighted he's going to be there. | |
| If he just stood at the Speaker's rostrum and read off all his list of accomplishments since January 20th, we'd be there all night. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't expect it will go that long. | |
| He's going to give a truncated version of this. | ||
| But there really is so much to celebrate. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The president has already notched impressive lists of wins in so many categories. | |
| There's a few. | ||
| Securing the border so well that border crossings have hit an historic low. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Deporting criminal illegal aliens. | |
| Taking on the cartels directly. | ||
| Standing up to terrorists, bringing hostages back home. | ||
| Working to secure peace around the globe. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Ending the weaponization of government. | |
| Bringing investments and jobs back to the U.S., unleashing American energy, keeping men out of women's sports that the Democrats don't seem to agree with us on, and cutting waste fraud abuse. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, all this has been happening in just 43 days. | |
| It's hard to believe. | ||
| He's just been in office 43 days, and that's just one sample list of what's been accomplished. | ||
| It is, as our whip said, promises made, promises kept. | ||
| And we're going to keep that going. | ||
| And he's just getting started. | ||
| So we look forward to hearing more about his vision for the future tonight. | ||
| And we will continue to work with him hand in hand to deliver and implement the America First Agenda and renew the American dream, which will be the subject of his discussion tonight. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So with that, I'll take a few questions and we'll go. | |
| Yes? | ||
| Thank you, Speaker. | ||
| Democrats have been seizing on the footage of protesters at Republican town halls, and now they're pushing back on, I guess, reporting that there's been discretion that Republicans should hold less town halls. | ||
| I mean, do you think that that's what your members should be doing? | ||
| Do you think that there should be a lot of the time? | ||
| Well, look, we've been encouraging our members to communicate directly with their constituents, and they're anxious to do that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There's lots of different ways and forums to do it. | |
| You could do it in telephone town halls. | ||
| You can have small subgroups of people from different industries and segments of the community. | ||
| We find that to be very, very productive and more productive than if you just go to an open forum right now. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Because we've seen this movie before. | ||
| George Soros-funded groups and others literally pay protesters. | ||
| And, you know, I saw my friend Hakeem Jeffries decrying that I've said that, but we know that that is a fact. | ||
| Democrat activists who don't live in the district very often will show up for these town hall events and they'll go in an hour early and they'll fill all the seats. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And so the constituents and the people from the community that are actually represented don't even get a seat. | |
| Now, I'm not saying everyone in these, all the Democrats in these town halls that you've seen on television were not from the local area. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But look, there are people who do this as a profession. | |
| They're professional protesters. | ||
| So why would we give them a forum to do that right now? | ||
| The best thing that our members can do is communicate directly, frequently, consistently with their constituents, and there are other avenues to do it than just going in to try to give the other side sound bites. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, they're doing this for the cameras. | |
| We all know it. | ||
| And I think it's wise not to play into it right now. | ||
| So that's my position. | ||
| Yes? | ||
| Speaker, would you have preferred or should Secretary Jubio have gone through the Congress on the $3 billion arms sales announced to Israel over the weekend? | ||
| And what do you hope to hear from President Trump tonight on what's next for GASA? | ||
| Well, I think we'll have some important information on that tonight. | ||
| From my perspective, what is happening at the Secretary of State, Department of Defense, and of course all through the White House is well within the President's authority. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They have discretion on some of these funds and how to use them. | |
| There's been consternation about the announcement that they would pause military aid to Ukraine. | ||
| And I had a few people ask me this morning, well, don't you think that's a violation of separation of powers or something? | ||
| It's not. | ||
| The president has authority to do that, to act as the commander-in-chief, to use the strategy that he and his team believe is best fit for that. | ||
| It's not changing or redirecting something that Congress did. | ||
| Unlike the Biden administration, you remember with Israel, he was basically redirecting whole categories of, for example, armaments and bombs that Congress had duly enacted, had voted to send to Israel. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They were trying to redirect and hold it in perpetuity. | |
| This is different. | ||
| A temporary pause, I think, is a strategic move by the Commander-in-Chief, and we support that. | ||
| And so we'll see. | ||
| I think there'll be more information about it tonight and in the days ahead, and we'll see how it develops. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, if you're moving ahead with a clean CR at current spending levels, does that mean that Congress will be funding programs that may have been eliminated or frozen? | ||
| And if so, how do you intend to address that? | ||
| Yeah, so a clean CR allows us to avoid a government shutdown, which isn't good for anyone, while the Doge effort continues. | ||
| And that's to, it's really critical work finding fraud, waste, and abuse throughout the government. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, what the Doge effort will do is prepare recommendations for FY26. | |
| We have to get FY25 done. | ||
| We will not be funding fraud, waste, and abuse that's already been discovered. | ||
|
unidentified
|
As soon as that is qualified and quantified, okay, it will be codified in that sequence. | |
| And what that means is we have a deadline of March 14. | ||
| We don't have time to calculate all the things in major categories to work in an appropriations process in that amount of time. | ||
| So, what will happen is that a clean CR requested and supported by the President and all of us will fund the government responsibly. | ||
| And at OMB, the Office of Management and Budget, and the White House, they will not direct funds to these categories of things that have been shown to be abusive. | ||
| What will happen on the back end is the way the procedure works is that we'll be able to go back later and do rescissions and handle it in other ways. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The big savings that Doge is finding, and I'm very excited about this. | |
| I've been meeting with Elon Musk about it regularly. | ||
| We talk about it often. | ||
| That will be a part of FY26. | ||
| We're going to get back to regular order, restore the process. | ||
| We'll get a budget from the White House that reflects all of those savings because there'll be time to calculate it and do that. | ||
| And then we will begin the appropriations process for FY26. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think it's going to be a very exciting development because we're going to do it differently than it's been done in years. | |
| We'll have whole categories, big savings, I believe, that will change the equation. | ||
| And it's going to be a great thing for the American people. | ||
| There are major tariffs that have obviously going into place today. | ||
| Lots of concerns from the business community and from Americans. | ||
| What is your message to those who are very worried that we could be at the start of a long and painful trade war? | ||
| Well, look, I don't think anybody envisions a trade war or looks forward to that, but I do think President Trump makes a great point. | ||
| You know, I've always thought of myself, I came up as a Reagan Republican and we believe in free markets and free trade. | ||
| And the President was really ahead of his time. | ||
| Back in 2015, 2016, when he first began to run for president, he would often correct us. | ||
| He'd say, yes, free trade, but fair trade. | ||
| And he made a great point. | ||
| I mean, a lot of people had blinders on. | ||
| There was all these countries around the world that have taken advantage of America. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The America First agenda is to reset those relationships. | |
| And his idea of reciprocal tariffs policies is actually really comports with common sense. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, if we have a country that we have a huge trade imbalance with because they're charging 100% tariff on imports from the U.S., well, then we need to bring that down. | |
| How do we bring it down? | ||
| By giving them a dose of their own medicine. | ||
| Now, this is not an adversarial thing. | ||
| This is to continue good relationships and trade policy. | ||
| So I think this initiative will achieve that desired result. | ||
| My suspicion is if there's a country that's charging us, hypothetically, 100% tariffs on imports and we do the same, they will begin to lower those import tariffs pretty quickly. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And you will get back to a point of equilibrium that does resemble free trade again. | |
| I think that's good for the American people and for our country. | ||
| And as the President said, just have a little patience with this. | ||
| Let it play out, see how it develops. | ||
| And I think at the end of the day, America is going to be better off. | ||
| American consumers, American families, and all of us as a nation and as a people. | ||
| So we support it, and we'll see what happens. | ||
| And thank you all for being here this morning. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Greg, can I ask what we cut off funding, but we cut off AIDS, right? | ||
| Well, I just addressed it. | ||
| So it's a temporary pause, and it is to do a reset. | ||
| I am heartened by the development. | ||
| You can watch this program in its entirety if you go to our website, cspan.org. | ||
| We are going to lead this here and take you live now to a press conference with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, along with other Democratic senators and citizens. | ||
| We're speaking about the impact of the Trump administration's policies on Americans. | ||
| If you want, yeah. | ||
| Are you the doctor? | ||
| So good to meet you. | ||
|
unidentified
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If I didn't say hello for Laura Bishop, she'd kill me. | |
| Okay, well, she's really a great person. | ||
| And I mentioned you today on the Capitol step, so you're great. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Okay, the guests in the front, here we go. | ||
| Okay, excellent. | ||
| Is everyone in? | ||
| Mark Warner. | ||
| Okay, well, we'll just stand. | ||
| You can stand back here with us. | ||
| Okay, everyone, come on in. | ||
|
unidentified
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I just follow another person. | |
| Yeah, where's Peter's guest? | ||
| She is, where did she go? | ||
| Our maple syrup, Allison. | ||
| Huh? | ||
| Okay, good. | ||
| Okay, great. | ||
| Okay, well, I want to thank everyone for coming. | ||
| As you can see, I want to mention the senators that are here. | ||
| Our leader, Senator Schumer, is with us. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And Senator Blumenthal is with us, as well as Senator Benre Lujan. | ||
| Senator Merkley's here. | ||
| Senator Kim, we've got, not you, you're a Minnesota farmer. | ||
| Senator Cantwell is with us. | ||
| And Senator Bennett, we've got Senator Welsh, and of course, Senator Kane. | ||
| Senator Warner is here, right over here, doing so much. |