| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
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Join the conversation live at 7 Eastern Wednesday morning on C-SPAN, C-SPAN now, or online at cspan.org. | |
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| House Democratic leaders speak now about President Trump's tariffs on Mexico and Canada and the impact of budget cuts ahead of the president's joint address to Congress tonight. | ||
| This is just under half an hour. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| Pleased to be joined with my colleague Ted Liu, Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus, as well as Greg Kassar, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the chair of the new Democratic Coalition, Brad Schneider. | ||
| Last week, House Democrats from every corner of our caucus voted against the House Republican budget, which cut Medicaid $880 billion to pay for tax cuts for billionaires. | ||
| We want to make health care more affordable and more available to the American people. | ||
| This is in stark contrast to Republicans who voted to kick children off their health care and to put seniors at risk. | ||
| As President Trump prepares for tonight's speech, it's clear that Democrats are on the side of working people, while Republicans are only looking out for their billionaire friends. | ||
| Trump and Republicans have broken their promise to lower costs on day one, which was his commitment to focus on tax giveaways for corporations and billionaires that don't need any more help. | ||
| In fact, Trump's reckless tariffs, just announced last night, will raise prices on gas, produce at grocery stores, beer, lumber to homes, built homes, crude oil, and parts that make cars. | ||
| As families struggle to make ends meet, Democrats are united against Trump and Elon Musk, dismantling the services that families rely on while steering more taxpayer dollars to themselves and their billionaire friends. | ||
| They're dismantling the VA healthcare and laying off thousands of veterans as Trump stands with Putin and risks our national security. | ||
| Tonight, we expect the president to put on a master class in dishonesty. | ||
| We expect the president will focus not on everyday Americans, but on his friends and his ego. | ||
| No matter what he says, he cannot change the damage he's done already and the fact that his agenda is going to raise prices for everyday Americans. | ||
| Vice Chair Ted Luke. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you, Chairman Aguilar. | |
| Honored to be here with Representatives Greg Kassar and Brad Schneider. | ||
| I want to tell you about a meeting I had today with vote vets. | ||
| They brought in a number of veterans who were fired. | ||
|
unidentified
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And I want to tell you a story about one of them. | |
| Her name is Eileen. | ||
| She is an Air Force veteran. | ||
| She then went to work for FEMA. | ||
| She's in a rural part of Alabama. | ||
| She was one of the first to volunteer with FEMA to deploy to Hurricane Helene. | ||
| On President's Day, she got an email firing her with no notice, and she couldn't even go back to her office. | ||
| They sent her UPS boxes saying, You put your government cell phone and laptop in this box and you ship it back to us. | ||
| A few days later, she had to go out to a field where her supervisor from FEMA had to walk out and give her her box from her items at her office. | ||
| She has two kids, four and ten. | ||
|
unidentified
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She now has no job. | |
| This is not how we should treat veterans, not how we should treat federal employees, not how we should treat any American. | ||
|
unidentified
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And this is what Donald Trump did to her. | |
| And he's done that to a large number of federal employees. | ||
|
unidentified
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And if you look at the federal workforce, about one in four are veterans. | |
| This is not how they should be treated. | ||
| And most of these actions are simply brazenly illegal. | ||
|
unidentified
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We have a number of court cases being filed. | |
| We're winning a number of those cases. | ||
| Others are going to go into litigation. | ||
| And I call on the administration to stop illegally firing our veterans and other federal employees. | ||
|
unidentified
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I also now want to touch on the subject of tariffs. | |
| You've seen with the indiscriminate tariffs that the president has both imposed and threatened to impose. | ||
| That not only is the stock market tanking, but also inflation is up, consumer sentiment is down, and Atlanta Fed has now predicted that we're going to contract this quarter in terms of GDP. | ||
|
unidentified
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That is shocking. | |
| And that is all because of actions of one person, the president, who is massively harming our economy. | ||
|
unidentified
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And then I'd like to conclude now on Ukraine. | |
| I don't know why Donald Trump is scared of Putin. | ||
|
unidentified
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He clearly is. | |
| He acts like he's scared of Putin. | ||
| And right now, with his pause in funding to Ukraine, I just wanted to let Ukrainians know to please hang in there. | ||
| The President of the United States cannot extend that pause because it would be illegal. | ||
| Congress, on a bipartisan basis, appropriated that funding to Ukraine. | ||
|
unidentified
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Ukraine is going to get that funding. | |
| With that, I'd like to introduce our amazing representative from Austin, Texas, Greg Kassar. | ||
|
unidentified
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He has done a fantastic job as leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. | |
| Thank you so much, Vice Chair Liu and Chairman Aguilar. | ||
| I also want to thank New Dem's Chairman Brad Schneider, who I'm proud to call a partner in the fight to protect Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and the American people. | ||
| Tonight, millions of Americans will tune in to watch the President address a joint session of Congress. | ||
| I do not know what Trump will say, but I can guarantee you that he is going to lie to the American people and not tell them the truth about what MAGA Republicans in Congress want to do to you right now. | ||
| So let me say it clearly. | ||
| Whatever political games that Donald Trump plays tonight, whatever lies he tells and whatever show he puts on, people watching at home should know that Trump and House Republicans want to steal your health care, steal your taxpayer money, and hand it over to their billionaire buddies and to their donors. | ||
| In Congress, Republicans are advancing a budget that would end Medicaid as we know it. | ||
| And Elon Musk is trying to cut your Medicare and your Social Security. | ||
| Social Security that seniors earned throughout their lifetime is what Elon Musk just recently called a quote-unquote Ponzi scheme. | ||
| I'll say it again. | ||
| Elon Musk just called Social Security, quote, the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time, end quote. | ||
| That's right. | ||
| A guy that makes $8 million per day from federal government contracts thinks that seniors getting $65 a day from Social Security is a, quote-unquote, Ponzi scheme. | ||
| Their plan is plain and simple. | ||
| Guys like Elon Musk get richer and you get screwed. | ||
| But here's the good news. | ||
| Democrats are united and fighting back to protect your Social Security, your Medicare, and your Medicaid. | ||
| New Democrats, Congressional Progressive Caucus Democrats, the two biggest ideological caucuses here in the Congress, have put out a joint letter that includes 100% of our members from our two coalitions saying we will not vote to cut your Medicare, your Medicaid, and your Social Security. | ||
| Over 200 House Democrats showed just in a matter of days that we are united with the American people in this fight. | ||
| So while we may not all agree on every single issue, we are saying with one voice, hands off Medicare, hands off Medicaid, and hands off of Americans' Social Security. | ||
| So now the question becomes, will any three House Republicans grow a background? | ||
| Will any three House Republicans do the right thing and act like U.S. representatives instead of like Trump employees and join us? | ||
| Because if three congressional House Republicans join together with Democrats to do the right thing, there will be no Social Security cuts. | ||
| We can prevent cuts to Medicaid and Medicare and to Social Security. | ||
| But if House Republicans choose instead unanimously to come after Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare, then they will own the terrible consequences for working people. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| And now I'd like to hand this over to my partner, the chairman of the new Democratic Coalition, Brad Schneider. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you, Chair Katzar, Chairman Aguilar, Vice Chair Liu. | |
| It's good to be standing here with you in one common voice. | ||
| Before I read my prepared remarks and talk about our joint letter, I want to touch on what Vice Chair Liu talked about, veterans. | ||
| I have the privilege of representing Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, Illinois. | ||
| Every single sailor, recruit, who enlists in the Navy shows up in North Chicago for 10 weeks of basic training. | ||
| I've had the privilege of attending those graduations. | ||
| I see those 17, 18, 19-year-old young people, men and women, who say, I want to serve my country. | ||
| I want to put on the uniform of the United States, go to places I do not know, do things I have no idea if I'll be able to do to protect the American people and the American way of life. | ||
| Many of those people served two years, four years, many serve 20 years or more. | ||
| All of them committed and dedicated to bettering our country. | ||
| And many of them, when they finish their service, are not done serving our country. | ||
| And they go to work with the federal government. | ||
| They are dedicated federal workers who are serving their nation in their local communities, many here in Washington. | ||
| They're the people who work at Social Security, the forest rangers in our national parks, the folks who provide care at VA hospitals. | ||
| And they are the ones who are getting the letters from Elon Musk and Doge in the middle of the night saying your service is no longer desired and we no longer value your performance. | ||
| This is wrong and this is weakening our country. | ||
| And this is why we are standing before you, united, to saying it has to stop. | ||
| I'm very proud that the CPC, Congressional Progressive Caucus, the New Democrat Coalition, others have come together. | ||
| We've made a very strong statement. | ||
| I'm proud to leave the 110 members of the New Democrat coalition in joining in that statement, saying we cannot allow dangerous cuts to programs that Americans have actually paid for out of their hard-earned dollars. | ||
| Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. | ||
| The headline is and should be, House Democrats are united, in deep contrast to what we're seeing from our Republican colleagues. | ||
| While the Democrats are focused on lowering costs, Republicans are pushing a budget that will result in cuts to health care and benefits that have been earned by hardworking Americans. | ||
| While Democrats are focused on making our communities safe, Mask and Doge are firing thousands of employees who help keep planes in the sky, prevent diseases like bird flu and measles from spreading, and serve our veterans after they complete their service to our nation. | ||
| Democrats are working tirelessly to bring down prices of everyday products, while President Trump just today levied 25% taxes on the American consumer that will raise costs for groceries, for cars and trucks, gasoline, new construction for houses, and many other everyday products. | ||
| Meanwhile, President Trump and congressional Republicans are doing everything they can to give a free ride to oligarchs like Elon Musk and his wealthy billionaire friends. | ||
| And they are putting the burden for all of this on our seniors, our children, our first responders, on people who educate our children, build our houses, work on the factory floor, who take care of our communities, and tend to us when we are sick. | ||
| It is these hardworking people who are on the crosshairs of the Republicans' actions. | ||
| One of these people is my guest tonight. | ||
| Adam Mulvey is a 20-year Army veteran who served three tours in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and one in Afghanistan. | ||
| He's one of 6,000 of these veterans we've talked about who was fired between February 13th and 24th. | ||
| He works or worked at Lovell Federal Health Care Center. | ||
| James A. Lovell Center is the only hospital in our country that serves both veterans and active military and every one of those recruits I just mentioned. | ||
| His job was to help provide emergency management services, planning and preparing in the case of a tornado or another emergency or even an active shooter. | ||
| He served 35,000 veterans in our area, tens of thousands of active duty sailors and other military members, and the 40,000 to 50,000 people each year who go through Naval Station Great Lakes. | ||
| We all believe government should be efficient, but Trump and Musk are taking a sledgehammer to Americans' lives and our livelihoods. | ||
| And I am proud to stand with all of my colleagues here today saying it has to stop. | ||
| Thank you, and I am proud to yield back to Chairman Aguilar. | ||
| Thank you, Brad. | ||
| Take some questions. | ||
|
unidentified
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Nick. | |
| Republicans are keying up a beautiful early through the end of the fiscal year, continuing resolution. | ||
| That could come as soon as this weekend. | ||
| Is this something that Democrats could support? | ||
| Well, let's be very clear about kind of the facts, but also about kind of where this process is. | ||
| Democrats do not have the ability to shut down government. | ||
| Republicans have the votes. | ||
| They demonstrated that last week when they went after health care and Medicaid for American families. | ||
| They have the votes. | ||
| They have the responsibility to govern. | ||
| But let's talk about the process. | ||
| Rosa Doloro has submitted an offer to Republicans. | ||
| They walked away. | ||
| Speaker Johnson has said that he wants the CR to be bipartisan. | ||
| There has been no outreach from the administration or the Speaker to Leader Jeffries. | ||
| So that's where things stand. | ||
| Republicans have walked away, and Republicans have the votes. | ||
| Then they should, they have demonstrated time and time again that with their unity, they can go after health care and programs that we feel are important to the American people. | ||
|
unidentified
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How do you gauge the effects on the public if the government were to shut down? | |
| What would be the level of suffering? | ||
| Donald Trump shut down government before. | ||
| Many of us up here were in Congress at that time. | ||
| You know, the administration historically has wielded that ability to keep agencies open and closed. | ||
| But the American public will absolutely feel it. | ||
| The potential to have offices closed, as my colleagues have mentioned, that is part of the point of what Trump and Elon Musk are doing here, is to fire employees to close down offices. | ||
| Is there justification toward eliminating services that everyday Americans utilize and have paid for? | ||
| That's where the focus is. | ||
| But we understand that Republicans' goal might be to enact pain on the American people. | ||
| We're angry about it. | ||
| The Democratic caucus is angry about it. | ||
| We do not have the votes to keep government open. | ||
| Republicans have the votes in the majority here. | ||
| And so that's what we are, but that's what we are concerned about. | ||
| And we stand, as we always do, willing to be partners in every aspect of governance. | ||
| But Republicans have the responsibility here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What about tonight? | |
| Is it an opportunity for Democrats to give a certain message out to the public? | ||
| And what exactly is the same way for the top priority? | ||
| We want the American people to know that we need to judge President Trump not just by the words that he says tonight, but by his actions that he has demonstrated. | ||
| Time and time again, he has said one thing and done the other. | ||
| Tonight will be no different. | ||
| So we want the focus to be everyday Americans, their economic security, their health, their safety. | ||
| That's what guides House Democrats every day. | ||
| And we're going to use every tool available to amplify our message against this chaos. | ||
| But we understand within that House chamber, he's the only one with a microphone. | ||
| And so we will use our platforms and our opportunities to have our voices heard for our constituents and for the American people. | ||
| Vice Chair Lou? | ||
|
unidentified
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Sure. | |
| Chairman Ayar is absolutely right. | ||
| We need to look at the actions. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And let me just tell you what has happened since Donald Trump took over. | |
| Inflation has increased. | ||
|
unidentified
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Consumer sentiment has fallen. | |
| There is now a measles outbreak in West Texas, even though measles was deemed eradicated a number of years ago. | ||
|
unidentified
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The stock market is tanking. | |
| And the administration has done nothing to help reduce the price of eggs. | ||
| In fact, you can't find eggs in a number of places. | ||
| And then they made it worse by firing people who work on bird flu research. | ||
| Those are the actions of Donald Trump, and he is harming America. | ||
| And we'll see what happens tonight, but he can't escape the really bad record he's already set forth. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Michael. | |
| A couple of you mentioned the tariff. | ||
| I want to ask you about the retaliatory tariff from Canada, Mexico, China. | ||
| First, are you concerned about an escalating trade war? | ||
| And once you are at Mexico to the American people, I think we're already concerned about the high cost of living the affordable, housing crisis the affordable child care crisis, and then to ask these tariffs, which are Mexico to Americans who are concerned that their cost of living is so important. | ||
| Yeah, this is absolutely harmful, but we have said that Donald Trump will make America less safe and more expensive. | ||
| That is exactly what he's doing. | ||
| Rarely do the four of us get up here and would acknowledge Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal, but they call this the dumbest trade war in American history. | ||
| And we agree. | ||
| The retaliatory tariffs will be coming from those countries. | ||
| This is going to make auto parts, energy, things that Americans use more expensive. | ||
| And that's terrible. | ||
| And the American people are absolutely going to feel it. | ||
| Republicans are acknowledging that everyday Americans are going to feel it. | ||
| But they are not willing to stand up against it. | ||
| They time and time again have proven that they will not push back against Donald Trump. | ||
| And so that will mean that will translate to Americans paying more. | ||
| And it's something that House Democrats are concerned about, or angry about. | ||
| But that's where the administration wants to focus their time and attention. | ||
| Brad Schneider. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| So a couple weeks ago in my district, I had a meeting, a roundtable meeting with farmers in my district, farm bureaus from each of the three counties in my district. | ||
| And we were talking about the prospect. | ||
| We're now past the prospect. | ||
| China has announced a 15% tariff on U.S. agricultural products. | ||
| One of the observations made, in fact, this gentleman opened up our conversation with remarking that United States farmers are the most productive. | ||
| We're blessed to have incredibly fertile land, but we're also blessed to have an incredibly hardworking, capable agriculture industry. | ||
| And we produce more food than we can consume as Americans. | ||
| It's a good thing. | ||
| We can help feed the world and a growing population. | ||
| Challenge is that farming is a very low-margin business. | ||
| So if you take that food that we're exporting around the world and you make it more expensive, harder for American farmers to sell that food around the world, many of them are going to not make their numbers for the year. | ||
| Their expenses are going to exceed their income, and ultimately they're going to go under. | ||
| We saw this script eight years ago when President Trump put tariffs in place then. | ||
| And that trade war led us to have to bail out those farmers. | ||
| Farmers don't want a bailout. | ||
| They are hardworking people who want to succeed and pass what they do from generation to generation. | ||
| And what the president is doing is undermining our agriculture sector, our rural communities, our nation as a whole. | ||
| Last question. | ||
| House Committee Leadership has told its members that they should be doing fewer immigrants in town halls, more teletown halls, as there are more protests. | ||
| And this morning, Speaker McCompton said that Democratic activist depends overtaking these town halls in their districts. | ||
| I'm wondering if you could speak on that a little bit, especially as Democrats have been doing more town halls in their district. | ||
| House Democrats are interested in holding our colleagues accountable. | ||
| But these are not paid individuals, no matter how many times the speaker says it. | ||
| These are Americans who are angry. | ||
| They're angry that their health care could be taken away. | ||
| They're angry that Elon Musk is running around firing people out of agencies that are providing services to them. | ||
| And House Republicans are running scared. | ||
| That's what we see. | ||
| They are scared to answer the question from their own constituents about why they continue to support these efforts. | ||
| That's the nature of where we are this moment. | ||
| And I think it speaks a lot about House Republicans that they aren't even willing to take those local questions. | ||
| Or it has to be so specific. | ||
| It has to be so filtered that they don't want to even answer questions from their constituents. | ||
| But we will continue, the House Democratic Caucus, New Democratic Coalition, Congressional Progressive Caucus, House leadership. | ||
| Everyone in our caucus is committed toward making sure the American public understands exactly what's at stake. | ||
| Correct, sir. | ||
| And I think that today's letter answers that question perfectly for you. | ||
| It's pretty simple to go back to your district and face Democratic and Republican voters alike if you're willing to represent your voters and protect their social security and their Medicare and their Medicaid and their quality of life. | ||
| House Republicans would have a much easier time going and speaking to their constituents if they weren't trying to steal their health care in order to give a billionaire a tax break. | ||
| So right now, I think many House Republicans have to make a choice about whether they want to fulfill their job title as representative, where they can have a town hall and actually speak honestly to their constituents, or whether they want to change their job title to Elon Musk employee. | ||
| And I think that's very hard to host a town hall if who you're working for is Elon Musk instead of your constituents. | ||
| Vice Chair Ludiclos. | ||
| In 2017, 2018, House Republicans ran away from the voters and didn't do any town halls. | ||
|
unidentified
|
How did that work out for them? | |
| Thank you so much. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks so much. | |
| Good day. | ||
| 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. | ||
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| 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. | ||
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| 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 Marco Slizzaraga. | ||
| I'm a student at Pepperdine University, and I'm from Los Angeles, California. | ||
| An issue that I want the president to address in his next meeting with Congress is I want him to address the validity of Elon Musk's email to federal employees, asking them for five bullet points as to what they've accomplished in the past week. | ||
| I feel like that action is very unlawful, and I'd love some more elaboration on his part on why these emails are being sent out to federal employees. | ||
| I'm Maggie Lyons, and I would love to hear the president talk about the National Apprenticeship Program. | ||
| Hello, my name is William Woolke. | ||
| I'm originally from East Tennessee. | ||
| I'm a third-year doctoral student at the University of Delaware, and I really think the president should be talking about youth homelessness in his upcoming congressional briefing. | ||
| Hey, my name is Thomas. | ||
| I'm from Brazil, and I would like the president to talk about the environment because I think it's one of the greatest challenges of the century, and it impacts my home country. | ||
| My name is Audrey. | ||
| I'm from Philadelphia, and I hope the president addresses science funding. | ||
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| Up next, look at U.S.-Cuba relations with Cuba's deputy foreign affairs minister. | ||
| He also talks about migration, alleged Chinese military bases in Cuba, and the implication of U.S. policies on Cubans. | ||
| This hour-long conversation is hosted by the Institute for Policy Studies. | ||
| Look at the different um the ones that have the little thing, That's theirs. |