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Live Capitol Coverage
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unidentified
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And the code on your screen. | |
| Every contribution matters. | ||
| and thank you. | ||
| Tonight, C-SPAN brings you live coverage of President Trump's address to Congress. | ||
| We'll begin with a preview of the president's speech next. | ||
| This is President Trump's first address to Congress in his second term and comes less than two months since he took office. | ||
| The president's remarks to the joint session are scheduled to get underway in an hour. | ||
| After that, we'll hear the Democratic response from Freshman Senator Alyssa Slotkin of Michigan. | ||
| And later, we'll take your calls and let you weigh in on the speech and the president's policies. | ||
| C-SPAN, bringing you democracy unfiltered. | ||
| And good evening and welcome to C-SPAN's coverage of the Joint Address to Congress. | ||
| That's an evening view of the Capitol here in Washington, the site of President Trump's address to a joint session of Congress in about an hour. | ||
| This is his fifth overall and the first of his second term, about 43 days in. | ||
| His address comes as lawmakers are working to cut government spending, come up with a federal budget, and deliver on President Trump's goals of $2 trillion in savings. | ||
| And it comes after uncertainty on U.S.-Ukraine policy and the beginning of a potential tariff war. | ||
| And here's a live look at the White House, where the Trumps will be departing shortly for the 16-block drive to the Capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue. | ||
| White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt gave a preview of his speech earlier today, calling it a renewal of the American dream. | ||
| We'll talk more about the message of tonight's address and the guests the president is bringing with him with the two journalists who will be with us in studio tonight. | ||
| Now back on Capitol Hill, arrivals for tonight's address already underway. | ||
| As the more than 500 elected lawmakers and their guests make their way to the House chamber, we'll soon see senators gather to make their way over to the House and the arrival of cabinet secretaries, Supreme Court justices, and many other dignitaries. | ||
| And right outside the House chamber is Statuary Hall, where dozens of journalists are positioned to cover the evening. | ||
| C-SPAN, of course, has live coverage throughout the evening on all of our networks and platforms. | ||
| Well, joining us from Capitol Hill is Dave Clark with Punch Bowl News. | ||
| Mr. Clark, all day long today, there were a lot of press conferences with some pre-speech positioning by both parties, yes? | ||
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unidentified
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There certainly were. | |
| I mean, obviously, the White House previews its message that the president's going to deliver tonight, and Democrats are giving a little bit of a taste of how they're going to counter-program the event. | ||
| Anyway, I think what we're going to hear from the president tonight is kind of twofold. | ||
| One is he's going to try to explain what he's done during these first six weeks of his administration, which have been a bit of a whirlwind. | ||
| He's going to be trying to kind of put together all these executive orders that he's put out and tell a story about those. | ||
| And then he's going to kind of look forward and say what else he wants to do. | ||
| He's going to probably make a push for more border security funding from Congress. | ||
| He's going to talk about likely his trade wars or the tariffs he's ratching up on some of our allies and adversaries. | ||
| And I think when it comes to summing up what he's done so far, he's going to try to kind of make sense of all these executive orders he's done. | ||
| He's going to talk about his effort to shrink the government through Doge and Elon Musk. | ||
| And I think he's also going to touch a lot on some of the culture war issues, whether that's orders that he's put out on transgender people or ending DEI programs in the government. | ||
| Meanwhile, you know, Democrats are going to talk about some of the same themes, but obviously with a different tact. | ||
| They're going to be highlighting all the services that Americans might not be getting if the government's dismantled the way the president's trying to do that. | ||
| They're going to be also focusing on some of the possible budget cuts to programs like Medicaid that Republicans are considering. | ||
| So there'll definitely be a lot of talk tonight, a lot of jousting over what the agenda ahead should be. | ||
| So how would you describe the mood up there, Mr. Clark? | ||
|
unidentified
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I mean, for Republicans, it's pretty jubilant, right? | |
| They control both chambers of Congress. | ||
| They have President Trump in the White House, so they're riding pretty high. | ||
| There's a little bit of nerves among some of them on the various moves President Trump has made. | ||
| Some of the defense hawks are not very happy with the way things are going in Ukraine. | ||
| We'll see how much the president talks about that tonight. | ||
| But overall, Republicans are very, you know, feeling in a very good spot, you know, despite little nerves here or there. | ||
| And I think in the speech tonight, he's really going to be talking to those Republicans, but more importantly, his base of voters. | ||
| I mean, he's really going to be trying to rile them up and sell a message to them. | ||
| I don't think he's going to be trying to do a lot of converting tonight. | ||
| I think he's going to really be speaking to the faithful. | ||
| Mr. Clark, March 14th is just around the corner, the end of government funding. | ||
| Can you give us a status update on the budget talks? | ||
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unidentified
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Yeah, we're running up once again to a government funding deadline and warnings about a shutdown. | |
| Right now, what Republicans are doing is talking about passing what is known as a clean, continuing resolution. | ||
| So essentially, they're talking about just extending current funding through the end of this fiscal year, which is at the end of September. | ||
| But that could be a real difficult task for them because they have a very tight majority in the House. | ||
| And Democrats are really in no mood to help Republicans out here. | ||
| So one big question is going to be, can Republicans pass that continuing resolution with just their own votes? | ||
| And that's going to be very tough. | ||
| And if they can't, are they going to be able to sway any Democrats to vote for that resolution? | ||
| And if so, what are they going to have to give them to get their votes? | ||
| Dave Clark, Punch Bowl News, we really appreciate your spending a few minutes with us. | ||
| Where are you going to be during the speech? | ||
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unidentified
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Up in the gallery. | |
| Have you gotten a transcript of it yet? | ||
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unidentified
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No, I've not gotten a transcript of it yet. | |
| And as of my coming over here, we hadn't seen the excerpts yet. | ||
| So they're keeping a tight hold on it so far. | ||
| Thanks for joining us from Capitol Hill. | ||
| Well, here in our studio, Jasmine Wright is a reporter with Notice, News of the United States. | ||
| Jason Dick is the editor-in-chief of Roll Call. | ||
| Very quickly, what are you looking for tonight? | ||
|
unidentified
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I'm really interested in the approach that Trump takes from the get-go. | |
| I mean, as Dave sort of alluded to, the expectation, I think, from a lot of people is that he's going to be speaking to his base. | ||
| He feels that he has a mandate, or at least this is what he and his allies tell people, is that he has a mandate. | ||
| And there is no, at this point, advantage to them looking like they need to reach out to Democrats or to even to wavering Republicans. | ||
| So, I mean, sometimes these speeches can be conciliatory or they can be, you know, let's talk about how great things are. | ||
| I think Trump is going to step on the gas and he's going to kind of come out aggressive. | ||
| Jasmine Wright, same question. | ||
| I'm looking at his tone, his tone, his tone. | ||
| I was talking to a source familiar with the speech preparations, and they said it's not going to be flowery language. | ||
| They said that it's going to be impassioned. | ||
| It's something that he has been deeply involved in, that he's kind of been editing up until the last moment, and that it's going to reflect, I think, the shift that you've seen in the White House, certainly since at least last year. | ||
|
Democrats in the Chamber List
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| I mean, since last week after that Zelensky meeting, really feud yelling match in the Oval Office of him doubling down and his administration doubling down on this idea that they are projecting American strength. | ||
| So I'm looking to see if the tone reflects what we've seen from them over the last four days, which is kind of a doubling down of this projection that they're making. | ||
| Well, we will be back with Jasmine and Jason in just a minute. | ||
| But as always, our co-host this evening, Greta Bronner. | ||
| Hi, Greta. | ||
| Hey, Peter, as you were talking about, lawmakers and the president get to invite guests in the House chamber for this address to Congress. | ||
| Topping the list is a name that many people have heard repeatedly over the first 40 days of this administration, and that's Elon Musk. | ||
| Billy House, who reports for Bloomberg News, putting on X today that Speaker Mike Johnson wanted Musk to be on the House floor tonight and made inquiries about his access as a non-official government officer or employee. | ||
| But the speaker telling Billy Johnson that Musk will be seated, in fact, in the gallery above the floor with the First Lady. | ||
| Now, in the box with the First Lady will be around 11 guests, and you'll hear the president introduce each of them in his speech tonight. | ||
| Here's an idea of the people and the themes that they reflect and why they were invited to sit with the First Lady tonight. | ||
| As we said, Elon Musk, the president expected to highlight the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, Doge. | ||
| Allison and Lauren Phillips, this is the mother and sister of Lake and Riley. | ||
| Lake and Riley, the 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student who was murdered by undocumented immigrants. | ||
| Alexis Nunningre, also a mother of a 12-year-old killed by undocumented immigrants. | ||
| So that will be a theme tonight with those guests and others. | ||
| And then Peyton McNabb, a volleyball player who allegedly had a concussion while playing against a transgender competitor. | ||
| And then January Littlejohn, who is an anti-transgender parents' rights activist. | ||
| Those are some of the names and the folks that will be in the box tonight with the First Lady. | ||
| As for Democrats tonight, this is ABC's headline. | ||
| Some Democrats are planning to skip the joint address to Congress. | ||
| The list seems to be growing as the day goes on. | ||
| Representative Alexander Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Chris Murphy, Senator Patty Murphy, Senator Martin Heinrich, and others all planning to skip tonight's joint address. | ||
| And then there was this reporting from Axios earlier today that Democrats are also split on how to respond. | ||
| Those Democrats that are going to be in the chamber. | ||
| Some members may walk out of the chamber when they hear something that they don't agree with. | ||
| You may see props like signs or noisemakers that Democrats have in the chamber with them tonight. | ||
| Some have talked about a pocket constitution that they may waive. | ||
| You'll also see members wearing ties and scarves with the colors of Ukraine's flag. | ||
| Women, female members of the Congressional Black Caucus have talked about wearing black to mark a somber mood. | ||
|
Pink Protest Symbol
00:15:39
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| And then the Democratic Women's Caucus, they're planning to wear pink in defiance. | ||
| Now, what does that look like? | ||
| Take a look at this from X earlier today. | ||
| This is Representative Norma Torres putting out a picture of her and other members of the Women's Democratic Caucus wearing pink, and that is what they will be wearing in the chamber. | ||
| And it says, she said, it's because we're powerful, passionate, and PO'd. | ||
| Pink isn't just a color. | ||
| It's a symbol of protests, a symbol of women's power and persistence. | ||
| The truth is, women can't afford Trump. | ||
| And then there's also this reporting from The Hill. | ||
| The House Freedom Caucus has sent a warning statement ahead of Trump's speech threatening to formally censure any Democrats who disrupt the joint address tonight. | ||
| Jerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, responded to that from the Freedom Caucus, that warning with just this picture. | ||
| This is Marjorie Taylor Greene yelling at President Biden during his State of the Union address last year. | ||
| Peter? | ||
| Jason, Dick, you've been covering these types of speeches in States of the Union for a long time. | ||
| Have they always been a bit unruly or has it gotten, has the arc changed? | ||
|
unidentified
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I think that there has been a market change since Trump's first term that has carried over into the Biden years. | |
| And as Greta was talking about, you know, like we could expect at least something that will be kind of dramatic. | ||
| And so I feel like there have always been moments where we can point to, I mean, there was a joint address that President Barack Obama delivered where he was talking about health care and Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, yelled out, you lie. | ||
| I mean, that was obviously a moment that sort of lives in the history, but that was kind of the exception to a lot of the rules that we've seen. | ||
| I mean, it's been amped up a little bit in the last 10 years. | ||
| But I would argue that some of the best moments of these joint addresses, which sometimes people feel can run far too long, obviously they start on the East Coast a little bit late. | ||
| And sometimes people believe that they are maybe a little bit too monotone. | ||
| So some of the more lively moments happen through these interruptions, through a president like Joe Biden last year, kind of going back and forth with the Republicans when he was talking about several various things. | ||
| I think that those moments really liven up something that at times can be a bit stale or a bit dry or feel like, you know, once it's getting into the 90 minutes or the 100 minutes, that it's just gone on too long. | ||
| And that speech you brought up, Joe Biden's last year, that was just a year ago, and it was a highly lauded speech that he gave. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah. | |
| And I think what was interesting about that moment was, you know, there were some discussions about his age already in the zeitgeist. | ||
| We already had Dean Phillips basically come in, run, and say that somebody needs to have this conversation, that Joe Biden should no longer be president. | ||
| And so there was some questions about whether or not he could do it in an election year, that type of speech, that type of format. | ||
| Obviously, you know, Joe Biden is not necessarily known to be the best orator out of all the presidents. | ||
| And so there were some questions about whether or not he could do that. | ||
| And he actually got rave reviews from that one because of the way that he was able to take the incoming from Republicans, because of the way that he was able to kind of go back and have this levity of banter, you know, basically saying, like, I'm telling you the truth, guys, I'm telling you the truth. | ||
| And kind of those market Joe Biden is so I'm curious to see how Trump does today. | ||
| He is not one to shy away from banter, quite frankly. | ||
| I think he likes kind of the back and forth, not necessarily confrontation, but certainly the give and take of, you know, arguing with somebody who maybe doesn't see his viewpoints or slapping somebody down. | ||
| So I'm curious to see how devoted Trump is to the text that he wants to say versus being in the moment in those intimate settings. | ||
| And if you go to notice.org, news at the unitedstates.org, you'll see Jasmine Wright. | ||
| She has the lead story. | ||
| Here it is. | ||
| Trump's first joint address of term two won't be anything like the last time. | ||
| Is that what you meant when you talked about tone, tone tone? | ||
| If you, I went back and watched his 2017 joint adjuster Congress. | ||
| Obviously, that was his first time in office. | ||
| And what somebody told me at the time who was a part of the White House was that they were really intent on it being Trump's reintroduction to America. | ||
| They knew him as the apprentice, Donald Trump. | ||
| They knew him as the campaigner Donald Trump, but they didn't know him as president. | ||
| And so when you go back and listen to that speech, his tone is really different than I think what you will hear tonight. | ||
| It was softer. | ||
| It was more unifier. | ||
| It was trying to show the American people that he can be presidential. | ||
| And it was also trying to tell both Republicans and Democrats, let's put away the trivial fights and let's work together on his agenda. | ||
| Now, I think if you go back and look at his first term, really only legislatively what he got done was tax cuts. | ||
| He wants that to be much different this time. | ||
| And I think you also see a Donald Trump who's really not going to take a lot of crap from people. | ||
| He is the president of a country where his party has the House, the Senate. | ||
| You could argue that he has a more favorable Supreme Court for some of the things that he wants to get done. | ||
| And so he's really going to come in there, I believe, and kind of put the marker down and say, this is my party. | ||
| This is my country. | ||
| Give me what I want. | ||
| And if you do not get on board, you will get left. | ||
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unidentified
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And I think it's important to note, too, that this Congress, the majority of them have been elected since Trump was elected. | |
| So this is what they know. | ||
| This is the world. | ||
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unidentified
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This is the tone. | |
| This is the way that they see you do things. | ||
| So some of the folks who perhaps wanted a more sedate, boring approach to the State of the Union or things like that, they're gone. | ||
| They're retired or they lost elections. | ||
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unidentified
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And so this is, in a way, he's shaped not just the Republican Party, but also the Democratic Party because Democrats have been in the opposition, the minority and the majority. | |
| But it's always in relation to Trump. | ||
| I mean, Trump, even when he was out of office, he still dominated the conversation, even through Joe Biden's four years. | ||
| And Jason Dick, just to pick up on what Jasmine was saying, the lead story in your publication, Roll Call Hints from Trump's first term addresses. | ||
| Do you agree that the tone could be a little bit different tonight? | ||
|
unidentified
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Oh, absolutely. | |
| And you saw the tone shift just in his first four addresses. | ||
| I mean, you did see this conciliatory, I'm going to run the country. | ||
| I'm going to run all the country. | ||
| I'm going to reach out to Democrats. | ||
|
unidentified
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We're going to get a lot of stuff done. | |
| We're going to cut taxes. | ||
| And at the end of his last State of the Union, you had Nancy Pelosi ripping up her copy of the speech behind him, and he didn't shake her hand. | ||
| So that, you know, I think that we're going to see more like that last speech than we are the first speech, even though there are no Democrats who are going to be behind him. | ||
| And this address to the joint session should begin in a little bit under an hour. | ||
| Coming up in the next 10, 15 minutes or so, you'll see the President and Mrs. Trump depart the White House. | ||
| You'll see the lights come up in the House chamber and you'll see the members milling about. | ||
| Of course, we will go to that as soon as that's available. | ||
| You'll see the Supreme Court. | ||
| You'll see the Joint Chiefs. | ||
| You'll see the diplomatic corps all coming in and the President's cabinet as well, all coming into the chamber. | ||
| Of course, that's all going to be live on C-SPAN and on C-SPAN too. | ||
| So you can watch it there as well or on our online platforms. | ||
| This is called a joint session. | ||
| Is that different than a State of the Union? | ||
| Is it technically different, or just in tone? | ||
| I think it's technically different. | ||
| I mean, they have two different titles. | ||
| The pomp and circumstance is kind of minusially different, but I think you'll see it kind of amped up when he gets to the State of the Union next year. | ||
| But certainly the effect is the same. | ||
| It is a president, his first month or so, first five weeks in office, laying out what they have already done and what they want to do. | ||
| And we know that Trump has come into office after four years of basically kind of being in DC exile in West Palm. | ||
| Obviously, the people that make up his cabinet, the people that make up his White House, some of his most trusted advisors, spent four years in some of these right-aligned think tanks figuring out what Trump's platform should be should he once he gets back into office. | ||
| And so they're kind of moving on that. | ||
| But I think what you saw for the first five weeks in his administration was executive power, him issuing over 75 executive orders, him basically pushing, I think, what a lot of people believe are the limits to those executive orders. | ||
| And now I think you're going to see Trump really try to turn onto that legislative power, making it very clear what he wants Congress to do when in office. | ||
| And so that is what we expect from a joint address of Congress, joint address to Congress from a president, really laying out how they want that first year to go, but then all the years after that. | ||
| Jason Dick, that speech that Biden, that President Biden gave last year, that let's use that as our lodestar, that did make a difference last year's speech. | ||
| Do these generally make a difference? | ||
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unidentified
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They certainly can. | |
| As you noted, with Biden, I mean, and I think that I would argue that in 2017, Trump set the table for what he would eventually get, you know, with the tax cuts, you know, with that first year. | ||
| So, I mean, depending on what he wants to emphasize, I mean, it's obvious that, you know, just by the guess that they do want to emphasize issues that are important to their base, that can be something that will signal to their base, like, hey, we've got you, we're keeping our word. | ||
| If you see like some of the focus groups that have come out, even people who are independents and Democrats are saying, well, he did say he was going to do this, and, you know, whether it's tariffs or what have you. | ||
| And I think that that's the thing that, you know, reaffirming that in the eyes of the White House could be a good because they really actually don't have that much time for legislation. | ||
| These times when the party controls the White House and both chambers of Congress are pretty fleeting. | ||
| They have a few months to do it, and then they're in the midterms, and then usually they lose one of the chambers. | ||
| So they know that they're on the clock and they want to hit the ground running. | ||
| And this is the first chance to speak directly to the American people after the election. | ||
| Let's check back in with Greta Bronner. | ||
| Peter, Jason Dick mentioned these former speaker ripping up the speech of President Trump during his first term and in his last address to Congress at his State of the Union. | ||
| Manuraju of CNN, catching up with the former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, recalled, she recalled tearing up President Donald Trump's speech in 2020 after his State of the Union address. | ||
| And she told him, quote, hopefully he won't lie so much this time. | ||
| It was a manifesto of lies, as I said at the time. | ||
| There's a quote from the former speaker ahead of tonight's speech by President Trump, his first of his second term. | ||
| You were talking about do these speeches make a difference? | ||
| Will they impact poll numbers? | ||
| So let's take a look at where the polls stand right now for the president. | ||
| His favorability numbers and these being tracked by YouGov and The Economist since the beginning of this second administration, you can see at the end of January, he was above water plus two in the first week of February, his even. | ||
| And then his favorability, unfavorability numbers shown there, you can see the favorables start to drop mid-February. | ||
| And the last week of February, his unfavorable number at 47% to 50% for his favorable. | ||
| And then take a look at 538 and their average of the President Trump's approval rating. | ||
| 48% approve, 47% disapprove. | ||
| His unfavorables, according to the average by 538, at 48.2%, and his favorables at 46.5%. | ||
| Now, when you break this down by agenda items, the White House is keen to point you to a Harvard Harris poll that was done recently. | ||
| And this is what they found. | ||
| Support among voters for deporting immigrants with a criminal history, 81%, according to this poll, supporting that. | ||
| 76% at the time that this Harris poll was, Harvard Harris poll was taken. | ||
| 76 said that they would approve the Doge cost-cutting efforts. | ||
| 76% closing the U.S.-Mexico border. | ||
| 69% saying that they support banning trans athletes from girls' sports. | ||
| And only about 39% in support of renaming the Gulf of America, the Gulf of Mexico, to the Gulf of America. | ||
| And then Reuters had a recent poll that we want to share with you ahead of tonight's address by the president Reuters Ipsos poll. | ||
| When they asked about the wrong track, they said 44% said that we are going on the wrong track for employment and jobs. | ||
| 53% said for the national economy on the wrong track. | ||
| And 64% on the cost of living. | ||
| Peter? | ||
| Well, the Senate is getting ready to come over to the House. | ||
| This is a live picture of the U.S. Senate. | ||
| Lindsey Graham there on your screen talking with Rand Paul and a couple of other members. | ||
| This is the Democratic side of the aisle now. | ||
| And there's Rand Paul down there on the far right. | ||
| It looks like Peter Welch, the gray-haired gentleman with the glasses talking. | ||
| And a couple of members. | ||
| There's Josh Hawley up in the far left corner, Republican of Missouri. | ||
| Shelly Moore Capito, the woman in that picture. | ||
| Jasmine Wright, Jason Dick, how much time do you all spend up on Capitol Hill or with these members? | ||
| John Thune, the majority leader, of course, right there up at the top with Tom Cotton. | ||
| Mark Wayne Mullen, a real ally to President Trump, who was responsible, and at least some part for getting a lot of cabinet members through, kind of pulling them, counseling them, walking with them through the offices. | ||
| I actually don't spend that much time on the Hill. | ||
| I'm usually at the White House. | ||
| But when I do stories, I kind of go there day to day. | ||
| You know, it's a quick way to get quotes. | ||
| I think what's really interesting to your point is how much of the makeup of both the Senate and the House has changed over the last eight years and how much it is Donald Trump's party. | ||
| I mean, you can kind of look at that group. | ||
| Obviously, Elizabeth Warren is not included in this comment or this section about how many people who are real advocates of President Trump's in a way that the Senate just certainly wasn't Trump's first term. | ||
|
Senators Align: D and R?
00:05:05
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| In a lot of ways, it was not just Democrats who were objecting to what Trump wanted to do in office, but it was his own party. | ||
| They kind of found him a little bit unserious. | ||
| They didn't seem to like him very much. | ||
| And so that is completely different. | ||
| These are people who really like Trump, who like what he's doing, and who ultimately know that the American public that voted for Trump is with Trump and not necessarily with them. | ||
| And Jason Dick, often the senators line up a D and an R together and walk over. | ||
| Not sure they're going to do that this time. | ||
| They very well may, but it's 5347. | ||
| And as Jasmine was saying, they support President Trump, the Republicans. | ||
| He's had a good run on his presidential cabinet. | ||
| He's gotten everybody through. | ||
| Only one cabinet position still to be filled, and that's labor to be voted on. | ||
| But besides the Matt Gates thing, he's had a pretty good run. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes. | |
| I mean, it does bring to mind the kind of the cliché about Democrats and Republicans, that Democrats have to fall in love and Republicans have to fall in line. | ||
| And Republicans have definitely fallen in line. | ||
| And, you know, you mentioned Jasmine Mark Wayne Mullen. | ||
| He really is, it's almost like he's playing to type. | ||
| You know, this is the guy who's a martial artist and kind of likes to be known as sort of a tough guy. | ||
| And he has been kind of one of the big enforcers for the Trump administration in a way where he's actually still working with his colleagues. | ||
| You actually don't hear a lot of negative things about Mark Quayne Mullen. | ||
| He's in John Thune's kitchen cabinet. | ||
| He doesn't have a formal leadership position, but he is somebody who has a lot of respect in a very short period of time in the Senate. | ||
| And yes, this is definitely, I see, we're looking at the Senate floor right now. | ||
| And Joni Ernst, she questioned whether Pete Hegset was the right person to run the Defense Department and just got sort of overwhelmed by reaction to Trump's allies, both inside that building and outside it, and quickly got in line. | ||
| And outside the White House, there is some activity. | ||
| It looks like the Trumps will be coming out to the limousine shortly. | ||
| And obviously, we will bring you that. | ||
| And if the President speaks to the press while he's there, we will certainly listen in on that. | ||
| There's one third location we want to show you. | ||
| This is live from Statuary Hall. | ||
| This is where all the reporters gather and where everybody will march through as they get ready to come into the House chamber. | ||
| We expect the House lights to come on very shortly and for Speaker Mike Johnson to call the House to order. | ||
| That's due to start at any point here. | ||
| Jason Dick, have you ever spent time up in Statuary Hall during a State of the Union or a joint address? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, both on the floor and there's also this little, you know, a little catwalk that's above Statuary Hall. | |
| You have a camera up there too. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, and it's a great sort of catwalk with a bird's eye view. | |
| I'm sorry to mix metaphors there. | ||
| But it's a really great spot. | ||
| You know, there's a lot of camaraderie in the press in the campus. | ||
| There's the view that Mr. Dick was talking about. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, it's a lot of fun. | |
| I've been in both situations. | ||
| I've been in the gallery, both on the daily side and the periodicals during the speech, during speeches. | ||
| And it is, I think that being in Statuary Hall in that little catwalk is among my favorite spots. | ||
| Now, Jasmine, right, you say you spend most of your time at the White House. | ||
| Do you have access and a booth there at the White House? | ||
| We don't have a booth because we are a new organization with notice, but we are a part of WACA and we do do WACA, the White House Correspondents Association. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And, you know, I spend a lot of time at the White House. | ||
| I was just out there at the South Lawn on Friday when Trump left for Mar-a-Lago, his West Palm Beach hotel location club right after that blow up with Zelensky. | ||
| And so, I mean, it's quite a privilege to be able to walk the White House grounds and be able to report, particularly at a time like this where, you know, you just don't know what's happening. | ||
| How often does the president stop and talk with y'all out there on the South Lawn? | ||
| Oh, I've actually done four departures. | ||
| He usually leaves at this point. | ||
| It's only been a couple of weeks, but almost every weekend. | ||
| And there's only been one time that I've been out there that he didn't stop to talk. | ||
| He is chatty. | ||
| He likes to talk. | ||
| He likes to give his point of view. | ||
| And I find it actually to be so helpful that he is talking so often because I think one difference between the Biden administration and this administration is that you had to talk to a lot of people around Biden to get Biden's point of view. | ||
|
Senator Slotkin's Early Questions
00:15:58
|
||
| Well, with Trump, you know, he will give it to you straight away. | ||
| And it's typically the most unfiltered version. | ||
| It's typically the most straightaway version of what he's thinking at any moment. | ||
| And so you're seeing them kind of prop the doors open. | ||
| Oh, there he goes. | ||
| The first lady in the house. | ||
| Just listen for a minute. No stopping. | ||
| There he is. | ||
| Isn't the beast about to drive away? | ||
| Yeah, not stopping. | ||
| I mean, from what I've heard from folks around him is that, you know, he's really taking this speech seriously. | ||
| He's really been involved with the framing of it. | ||
| And I think if you've, when he's talked to reporters yesterday, he didn't want to get into the details. | ||
| When he was asked about the Ukraine rare minerals deal, he'll say, I'll get to that in my speech. | ||
| So he doesn't really want to talk about what he's going to say. | ||
| I think he really wants it to be a surprise. | ||
| And I think that that has followed from his staff over, I'll look at him looking at the press through the window. | ||
| I think that that has really followed through his staff, too. | ||
| They say that there are going to be surprises in this speech. | ||
| I didn't, by the time I sat down, I didn't have a transcript. | ||
| And the pool has not, the press pool has not been given a transcript yet. | ||
| Back into the Senate, there's Tim Scott in the center with Shelly Moore Capito. | ||
| They're lining up. | ||
| The senators are lining up. | ||
| It will take them all of two and a half minutes to get from that location over to Stat Hall, Statuary Hall, which is just outside. | ||
| And we will see them then come right through here. | ||
| We're going to see the President's cabinet as well, the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs, and we expect the lights to go on in the House very shortly. | ||
| We can see the members in there, and we will go live to that. | ||
| Jason Dick, how would you, I'm not sure how to ask this question, how would you describe the relationship between Mike Johnson and President Trump and Mike Johnson and the 218 Republican members of Congress? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, it's a good question. | |
| I mean, I do think that, I mean, on just a very simple level, Mike Johnson is there to help implement the president's agenda, and he's made no bones about that. | ||
| How he gets that does account for some of the interesting relationships he has with his members. | ||
| And he's had to navigate a very small majority. | ||
| He has two members who has two vacancies, two Florida members, Matt Gates and Michael Waltz, and won't get those replaced until April at a minimum. | ||
| And so he has his lieutenants like a lot of speakers do. | ||
| But the thing is that the Republican Party and the Democratic Party for that matter are more homogenous in their beliefs than really they've been in almost any part. | ||
| They very much vote together, even if there are some defectors here. | ||
| Is that easier to do in the opposition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's certainly easier to do in the opposition. | |
| And I would argue that it actually gets easier when you have a margin like Johnson has right now, where when Pete Hegseth was confirmed, he lost three Republicans. | ||
| Nobody wanted to be the fourth Republican, who would sink the nomination. | ||
| So there's a lot of pressure when the margins are very close. | ||
| And you can see Vice President Vance is joining the Senate to walk over. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, so I do think that it is a, it becomes, you know, there are some very stark choices. | |
| Like, you know, you mentioned when you were talking with Mr. Clark earlier that the, you know, they have a funding deadline in a few days, in a little over a week. | ||
| And if the Democrats don't play ball in the House, then that puts a lot of pressure on all the Republicans. | ||
| Do they want to be the person who is going to be saddled with the blame for a government shutdown? | ||
| The dynamics are a little different in the Senate because they do have the filibuster on appropriations bills on this March 14th. | ||
| The budget resolution process, where the tax cuts will be, is a different process, and we're going to get to that in a few months. | ||
| It seems like eons that we have. | ||
| But I do think that you never want to be the one person who gets singled out as the person who sunk the president's agenda in these tight things. | ||
| And the minority can just say, we're not in the majority. | ||
| You have to do it on your own. | ||
| There's one senator who is not present in the Senate chamber, and that would be Senator Alyssa Slotkin, Democrat of Michigan. | ||
| She is giving the response tonight from Michigan. | ||
| What can you tell us about freshman Senator Slotkin? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Well, I mean, it's a big job for her. | ||
| It's a big perch. | ||
| It comes with a big spotlight. | ||
| I saw that she posted a photo earlier today with black and white as she's preparing for her speech. | ||
| But I think that should this go well, she's in a good position to be at least one of the people who are leading the Democratic Party at a time where the Democratic Party is lacking a real singular leader. | ||
| I think that one of the reasons, or a couple of reasons, why they chose Senator Slotkin, is because she won a state in which Kamala Harris didn't during the same timeframe by several points. | ||
| It is because she is from the Midwest and people believe that she appeals to American voters in a way that they think that the Democratic message was lacking this election. | ||
| She is somebody who comes from a national security background, so she can talk about that from a firsthand point of view. | ||
| And people believe that she's more down to earth. | ||
| I think the other really interesting thing about Senator Slotkin is that she was actually among some of the Democrats to pretty early question the vitality of Joe Biden, question whether or not that should be the party leader, whether or not he should be on the ticket in a way that other folks didn't. | ||
| And so I think that she has a big platform today. | ||
| And, you know, it will be, you know, time will only tell whether or not she delivers or whether or not people like her message. | ||
| But certainly, you know, this is an area for Democrats in which they don't have a real leader. | ||
| We just saw the Senate leave the chamber. | ||
| They are out of session now. | ||
| And this is live in Statuary Hall. | ||
| As you can see, it did not take long for the Senate to make its way over to Stat Hall. | ||
| JD Vance leading the charge of senators. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I just also wanted to piggyback a little bit on what Jasmine was saying about Senator Slotkin. | |
| She was first elected in 2018 as part of this kind of national security Democratic moms group with people like Abigail Spamberger, who left Congress and is now running for the Obama administration. | ||
| Right, Slotkin, and also a former CIA analyst, Spamberger, another former CIA officer. | ||
| Running for governor now of Virginia. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| And so, and Mikey Sherrill, who's a combat pilot, is also running for governor of New Jersey. | ||
| New Jersey. | ||
| All Democrats. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| All Democrats, all women, all national security backgrounds, all moms. | ||
| They're like their dream candidates. | ||
| And they were part of that big wave when the Democrats reclaimed the majority in 2018. | ||
| And I think that what Democratics operatives are looking for is more of the same if they can tap into that kind of imagery and also their expertise. | ||
| Well, it looks there like Angus King, the gentleman with the mustache, right behind, Right behind him is Rand Paul walking in with the senator from Washington State and Maggie Hassan from New Hampshire. | ||
| So it does look like they are doing the D in the R thing like they have done in the past here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So it is, you know, I would love to see some of these ducks. | |
| Yeah, these dynamics as you get down to the, you know, as you get down to the last bit, you know, it's almost like being picked last for a basketball game. | ||
| You know, some people are naturally very, you know, compatible. | ||
| And then, you know, sometimes you get stuck with somebody who you can't imagine ever having to want to take a photo with. | ||
| You're like, please don't film me. | ||
| I mean, it's interesting. | ||
| We just saw Senator Katie Britt of Alabama go past, and she obviously gave the rebuttal last year. | ||
| And that was, frankly, not a great moment for her. | ||
| I think that people did not receive it well. | ||
| It felt a little bit odd, her speaking, the way that she was speaking during it. | ||
| And if you could just hold that thought for two seconds, Jasmine Wright, let's listen to Speaker Johnson. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You can | |
| see the two Senate leaders there, John Thune and Chuck Schumer just snuck by. | ||
| Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Democrat. | ||
| JD Vance, the vice president, is in that mix. | ||
| He's shaking people's hands on the side. | ||
| John Barroso, who is in the leadership. | ||
| For the Republicans, Dick Durbin, 80 years old, in the leadership there, the gentleman in the gray hair in the back and the blue shirt. | ||
| He was just reelected in 2020, and so he will be up in 26 if he runs again. | ||
| And there's JD Vance. | ||
| Jason, Dick, you have been covering these, the people on the aisle. | ||
| What time do they get down there? | ||
| And the late Sheila Jackson Lee was from Democrat from Texas, was famous for always being on the aisle regardless of presidents. | ||
| I'd love to see that collection of photos. | ||
| But how long does it take if you're going to get on the aisle here to greet the president and everybody else? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sometimes they get there very early, sometimes four or five hours or early as soon as the security sweep is over. | |
| It is a first come, first serve situation. | ||
| It's a little nerve-wracking to be that, but they want to position themselves. | ||
| And whether they're Democrats or Republicans, they like those quotes. | ||
| And there's Nancy Mace in the white dress talking, a Republican of South Carolina talking to JD Vance. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sometimes, I mean, it was a little lonely. | |
| I mean, some of the other people who come to mind who have get there very early. | ||
| L.A. Engel, former member, former Democrat from New York, Cynthia McKinney, a Democrat from Georgia. | ||
| And you'd hear about also just like small little bits of bonding, sometimes for people who wouldn't necessarily spend a lot of time together, particularly Democrats and Republicans from different parts of the country and so forth. | ||
| And it is, you know, it's one of those quirky kind of rituals that makes covering Congress a lot of fun to know about these sort of things. | ||
| We've got some old photos in the roll call archive of people bringing newspapers and just reading them all day long, waiting for the president and people to start filling in. | ||
| And you can see the Joint Chiefs had come in. | ||
| There's Senator Scott behind JD Vance. | ||
| Byron Donalds, running for governor of Florida as a Republican, big, big President Trump supporter on the campaign. | ||
| There's Chip Roy, Republican of Texas, who has been a supporter and been, you know, sometimes a little bit of an iconoclast. | ||
| There we go. | ||
| There we go. | ||
| That's a nice one. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Former snaver for Ted Cruz. | |
| Jasmine, right? | ||
| You were talking about Senator Katie Britt last year. | ||
| Up to that rebuttal, she was chosen because she was seen as a rising star and potential VP pick. | ||
| Yep, she was seen as a rising star. | ||
| She was seen as someone who had a great future ahead of her. | ||
| I would argue that she is still really in the mix. | ||
| She is one of the White House's most you senators, most talked to senators on the Hill. | ||
| So, you know, I mean, you know, I think that they, these, if these rebuttals go poorly, obviously it's some bad PR, but it doesn't completely derail your entire career. | ||
| But certainly, I think after hers, there were a lot of questions about whether or not she would be a good person. | ||
| Do you see a lot of members? | ||
| By the way, we have been simulcasting on C-SPAN and C-SPAN 2. | ||
| Now, we're going to say goodbye to our C-SPAN 2 viewers, and that will be completely sights and sounds. | ||
| So if you want just sights and sounds, stay with C-SPAN 2. | ||
| If you want to continue listening to our program, we'd love to have you stay with us. | ||
| Jasmine Wright of Notice, Jason Dick of Roll Call will be here along with Greta Brauner, of course. | ||
| So I didn't mean to interrupt you. | ||
| No, you're okay. | ||
| Say goodbye. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| No, I think that they, you know, people question whether or not she'd be a good person to be Trump's number two. | ||
| But still, she has a very big role in the Senate and is well utilized, I think, by the White House there. | ||
| See who's in the chamber there? | ||
| Or up in the gallery, I should say. | ||
| That was Elon Musk, who has now arrived. | ||
| And we should be seeing Usha Vance, second lady, and Belania Trump shortly arriving in there as well. | ||
| Yeah, I have a sneaking suspicion that we are going to see a lot of Elon Musk throughout this speech as he sits next to Melania and next to the second lady up in the gallery. | ||
| Is that Tom Homan? | ||
| That is Tom Hall. | ||
| Tom Homan. | ||
| Tom Homan. | ||
| Do you see him at the White House from time to time? | ||
| Yes, he gaggled twice with reporters there. | ||
| He often goes out to Pebble Beach along the cameras next to the White House that are typically out of the screen when they're doing things on the North Portico to go do TV hits with various different networks and comes and talks to the press. | ||
| He is very press friendly and very open to talking about the latest numbers that they've been able to accumulate through deportations, the fact that they would like more money from Congress to continue to do those wide-scale deportations, something that we know that Trump is going to ask Congress for again today, really trying to not just get money for deportations, but get money for a larger border security package. | ||
| There's Mark Warner, John Bozeman, Newton Callista Gingrich, former Speaker, is up in the chamber or up in the gallery as well. | ||
|
Congressional Aisle Drama
00:05:28
|
||
| You can see that we have extra cameras on the floor of the House when we have shots like this. | ||
| Usually the House of Representatives controls the cameras, but on special occasions they give the press pool, the C-SPANs, the CNNs, et cetera. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Like multiple speaker votes, for instance. | |
| Yes. | ||
| Yeah, there were several extra cameras. | ||
| And of course, there's Speaker Pelosi. | ||
| It looks like a Ukraine-colored flag, our scarf in her hand, and Stenny Hoyer with a Ukraine-designed or Ukraine colors tie, the former leaders of the House Democrats. | ||
| John Bozeman is right there in the center of your screen. | ||
| He's a Republican from Arkansas, working his way down. | ||
| There's Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, former governor of Virginia. | ||
| Right behind him, Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts. | ||
| The Senate still has not gotten seated. | ||
| We've been watching them come down the aisle for quite a while. | ||
| Hakeem Jeffries and Debbie Dingell. | ||
| Debbie Dingell's husband, John Dingell, the late John Dingell, was a dean of the house from Dearborn, Michigan for years and years and years. | ||
| And now she's been in Congress for years. | ||
| And of course, Hakeem Jeffries is the leader of the Democratic Party. | ||
| Jasmine Wright, do you see a lot of members coming through at the White House? | ||
| You actually do. | ||
| Sometimes they, particularly in the first few weeks, they would come into the press briefing after an unannounced meeting with the president because they said, you know, I hadn't been here in four years. | ||
| I wasn't invited the entire time that Joe Biden was in office. | ||
| And so they were really excited to be in there, to be back into the Oval Office, really, frankly, to be back into power. | ||
| I think, you know, the president has been really adamant about having these members of Congress come over to the White House. | ||
| It's one of the biggest tools that the president can use. | ||
| Kind of not just the power of the pulpit there, but really, you know, bringing lawmakers on Air Force One, bringing them into the Oval, allowing them into the grandness of the White House so that in turn they can give you kind of this legislative freedom to do what you will and to make your agenda become a reality. | ||
| And so I think that that is what Donald Trump is using. | ||
| But we know tomorrow, the House Freedom Caucus, Chip Roy, we saw him a few moments ago, they will be going to the White House as Trump tries to pull them along. | ||
| Lindsey Graham, who we see on the screen right now, he was at the White House on Friday. | ||
| He came out to the sticks to talk to reporters after the Zelensky blow-up and kind of started, at least publicly, rolling the tires on whether or not there should be a regime change in Ukraine. | ||
| Obviously, that language has kind of softened in the last really like three hours. | ||
| I believe that's Lisa Murkowski coming up on the screen. | ||
| It looks like Senator Smith in front of her. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Tina Smith and Catherine Cortez-Masto. | ||
| And he was with Ben Ray Luhan from New Mexico. | ||
| Lisa Murkowski was. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Lisa Murkowski has been somebody who, you know, moves to the home. | ||
| Should we go with his word, iconoclastic? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| There's Kash Patel. | ||
| FBI Director Kash Patel down there on the. | ||
| He's in the gallery, it looks like. | ||
| He's up in the gallery. | ||
| There's Ivanka. | ||
| That was Ivanka, I believe. | ||
| Was that Ivanka? | ||
| Yeah, I think that was Ivanka. | ||
| There's Usha. | ||
| And there's Mrs. Vance. | ||
| Yep. | ||
| And you can see the vice president and the speaker waiting for everything to happen. | ||
| Just looking at the schedule that we were given ahead of time, it looks like they are running just a few minutes late, but all is well. | ||
| And that's Tiffany. | ||
| There's Tiffany Trump, I believe. | ||
| Donald Trump. | ||
| Right behind her. | ||
| Yeah, the whole family is up there. | ||
| Hey, let's check in with Greta Bronner. | ||
| Hi, Greta. | ||
| Peter, you've pointed out a couple members of the president's cabinet tonight. | ||
| One you will not see is the Veterans Affairs Secretary, Doug Collins. | ||
| He is the designated survivor tonight, per the White House official by CNN's Caitlin Collins reporting that the designated survivor skips out on these joint addresses, the state of the unions, in case of a catastrophic event. | ||
| And so tonight it is the VA Secretary, Doug Collins, who will not be in the chamber. | ||
| And then you were talking about those folks that line up on the center aisle, Billy House of Bloomberg, noting that the great center aisle seat claimers of the past, Elliot Ingle, the late Sheila Jackson Lee, Michelle Bachman, they're not there tonight, but a new group has appeared to be already getting in place. | ||
| This was hours ago at 4 p.m. Eastern Time. | ||
| They were getting in place along the center aisle, and that included Representative Anna Paulina Luna, Republican of Florida, other Republicans, Andy Ogles of Kentucky, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Congresswoman Miller Meeks of Iowa, all lining up on the Republican side on the center aisle hours before the speech in hopes that they get to shake the president's hand when he comes down the aisle. | ||
|
Committee Escort Duties
00:02:57
|
||
| Jason Dick, has this become more of a blown-up event than it used to be? | ||
| Has this always been a lot of rasmotas? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think that, I mean, it depends on how far back you want to go. | |
| I mean, Lyndon Johnson in 1966 moved the speech from the mid-afternoon to the evening, you know, like in order to catch a better audience. | ||
| And that was 1966. | ||
| I mean, he saw that television helped his predecessor, John F. Kennedy, get elected. | ||
| And he wanted to be the members of the committee on the part of the House to escort the President of the United States into the chamber. | ||
| The following. | ||
| The gentleman from Louisiana, Mr. Scalise. | ||
| The gentleman from Minnesota, Mr. Emmer. | ||
| The gentlewoman from Michigan, Mrs. McClain. | ||
| The gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. Hudson. | ||
| The gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Reschenthaler. | ||
| The gentleman from Utah, Mr. Moore. | ||
| The gentlewoman from Indiana, Mrs. Houchin. | ||
| The gentleman from Oklahoma, Mr. Hearn. | ||
| The gentleman from New York, Mr. Jeffries. | ||
| The gentlewoman from Massachusetts, Ms. Clark. | ||
| The gentleman from California, Mr. Aguilar. | ||
| The gentleman from California, Mr. Liu. | ||
| The gentleman from Colorado, Mr. Nagoos. | ||
| The gentlewoman from Washington, Ms. Delbin. | ||
| The gentlewoman from Michigan, Mrs. Dingell. | ||
| The President of the Senate, at the direction of that body, appoints the following senators as members of the committee on the part of the Senate to escort the President of the United States into the House chamber. | ||
| The senator from South Dakota, Mr. Thun. | ||
| The senator from Wyoming, Mr. Barrasso. | ||
| The senator from Arkansas, Mr. Cotton. | ||
| The senator from Oklahoma, Mr. Lankford. | ||
| The senator from West Virginia, Mrs. Capodo. | ||
| The senator from South Carolina, Mr. Scott. | ||
| The senator from New York, Mr. Schumer. | ||
| The senator from Illinois, Mr. Durbin. | ||
| The senator from Minnesota, Ms. Klovichar. | ||
| The senator from New Jersey, Mr. Booker. | ||
| The senator from Wisconsin, Ms. Baldwin. | ||
| The members of the Escort Committee will exit the chamber through the lobby doors. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The DEAN | |
|
Vice Presidents Chat Up Close
00:05:50
|
||
|
unidentified
|
of THE Diplomatic Corps. | |
| And we're about five, ten minutes away from the president entering the chamber and beginning his speech. | ||
| Jasmine Wright, Jason Dick, we've been watching this and chatting amongst ourselves. | ||
| Is there anything that we can share that we were talking about? | ||
| I think one thing that I'm noticing is a difference between the way that former Vice President Harris and Speaker Mike Johnson were talking last year versus now. | ||
| I mean, it's so much more jovial with Vice President Vance and Speaker Johnson than it was. | ||
| It's so much more kind of homeboy. | ||
| These people know each other and they're kind of on the same side. | ||
| It's just interesting to watch the differences, you know, just a year. | ||
| Would you call Harris and Johnson formal? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Chief Justice and Associate Justices of the United States Supreme Court. | |
| That's great. | ||
| Jason Dick, we were just watching the Supreme Court come in. | ||
| We saw Justice Roberts, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Kagan, And we did not see Justices Brown Jackson, so do my or Alito Gorsuch Thomas. | ||
| But we did see Anthony Kennedy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right, retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. | |
| Does that tell you anything? | ||
| That just four out of the five? | ||
| Four out of the nine? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, I mean, Justice Alito has been skipping this for quite a few years after, you know, like sort of some of his motions and kind of mouthings kind of caught the cameras during one of Barack Obama's addresses. | |
| Thomas has also skipped quite a few lately. | ||
| And, you know, it's not surprising to me because I do think that some people are feeling like that they don't have to be there. | ||
| They've done this before. | ||
| A lot of them have done this before, even for people who have, you know, are relatively new. | ||
| But not necessarily, you don't see this necessarily as a protest by two of the Democratic appointed justices, Brown Jackson and Sotamayor. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It could be. | |
| And you can see Justice Roberts and Kagan. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I mean, you know, the Supreme Court is a very tight group. | |
| They're very close. | ||
| They spend a lot of time around one another. | ||
| You know, whether or not it's a protest or whether it's just, I think I want to just catch up on black doves on Netflix, Mike. | ||
| I had a reservation I couldn't miss. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| At the local eatery. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, it is Mardi Gras. | |
| You know, maybe they're a Dow Fiend and Dow Johnny. | ||
| Jasmine Wright, when we were talking, you were talking about JD Vance and Mike Johnson. | ||
| And I asked the question before we got interrupted, which was, would you consider the Harris-Johnson relationship formal? | ||
| Yeah, I mean, I think that you, I'm not even sure I would call it a relationship. | ||
| Those are two people that didn't really know each other, that didn't really talk. | ||
| It was these moments in which they kind of interface it interface a lot more after Johnson became Speaker. | ||
| And obviously the Vice President was on her fourth year of being the Vice President. | ||
| I believe that Johnson was asked later on at an interview what they talked about. | ||
| And he said, you know, we made niceties. | ||
| We didn't talk about politics. | ||
| We talked about things that two people, two humans, talk about. | ||
| You know, I am not sure that that is the case right now with JD Vance and Mike Johnson. | ||
|
New Members, Stock Markets, Trump
00:03:30
|
||
| I think that they're talking pretty frequently. | ||
| JD Vance was at the Capitol earlier today for a confirmation hearing for one of the people nominated to join the FBI, one of his longtime friends. | ||
| So I think that they're continuously having conversations in a way that Johnson wasn't having with the previous administration. | ||
| We have about a minute and a half before William McFarlane, the House Sergeant at Arms, is scheduled to announce, Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States, et cetera. | ||
| What are you listening for in tonight's speech, Jason Dick? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mainly about the border. | |
| I mean, I think that there is going to be a lot of discussion about immigration and the border. | ||
| Trump has always felt that this is the winning issue for him. | ||
| I think that's going to be a big part of things. | ||
| Jasmine Wright. | ||
| The economy. | ||
| I mean, this tariffs move that happened overnight into today. | ||
| Obviously, there's some thinking that maybe they would pull back the tariffs or bring it down to a lower percentage. | ||
| But people are concerned about the economy. | ||
| They're giving Trump some more time, but people are concerned. | ||
| And so I want to hear how he not just blames the Biden administration, but how he talks about it moving forward. | ||
| Well, late tonight or later tonight, Howard Luttnick, the new Commerce Secretary, made a statement. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, he said that what should we be listening for? | |
| Well, he said that they had been on the phone with both their Mexican and Canadian counterparts trying to make a deal, and that President Trump may announce, if not here, maybe tomorrow, that they are pulling back some of the tariffs, not completely letting them go, but certainly pulling them back as long as these countries say and then become more forceful on issues like fentanyl, on issues that the reason why these tariffs are put in place. | ||
| But I think it's just the reality is that Trump saw the stock markets. | ||
| He is somebody who follows the stock markets. | ||
| He follows them quite religiously, and they were going back and forth, back and forth, really kind of freaking out negatively about these tariffs. | ||
| And so I don't think that the White House will be able to say quite credibly that that wasn't the reason or that wasn't a reason as to why they're kind of saying we're going to pull these back. | ||
| But certainly only time will tell what percentage that is, how much that is, and whether or not they still do reciprocal tariffs on April 2nd is. | ||
| And Nidia Velazquez, a Democrat of New York, talking with Nancy Pelosi there, both long-term members. | ||
| I apologize for not recognizing that face. | ||
| There are 62 new members of Congress. | ||
| Nearly 20% of the Congress is new. | ||
| And so that's a lot of new members. | ||
| And I'm not quite sure who that one was. | ||
| I think we've had a pretty good batting record for her. | ||
| 80%, haven't we? | ||
| Oh, I think more than that. | ||
| And Melania Trump, who was on Capitol Hill yesterday as well. | ||
| Was that a surprise to you down at the White House that she came down? | ||
| Here comes Mrs. Trump. | ||
| She's sitting with her guests. | ||
| Jenna gave us some guests earlier. | ||
| They include some revenge porn victims, the comparatory family that was, her father was killed in Butler of Pennsylvania as she's sitting with her guests there. | ||
|
Shift in Energy
00:03:03
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unidentified
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Reagan Riley, Reagan Riley family is there. | |
| To answer your question, I wasn't surprised to see her. | ||
| I mean, I think those were her first public remarks since Donald Trump took office. | ||
| There were some questions about how much she would be in Washington, how frequently she'd be around. | ||
| But I think that there's a real shift in energy, not just from the president, but also from her office, trying to do things much differently this time around. | ||
|
unidentified
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Mr. Speaker, the president's cabinet. | |
| And now the cabinet is coming in. | ||
| Secretary of State Rubio, Secretary of the Treasury, Vesant. | ||
| We saw there as well Attorney General Pambonding, Pete Hegseth was there. | ||
| Mr. Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary who we talked about a little bit earlier. | ||
| RFK Jr., of course, HHS. | ||
| There's Scott Turner. | ||
| HUD. | ||
| There's Seth Duffy. | ||
| I'm so sorry. | ||
| Sean Duffy, Transportation. | ||
| There's Senator Adam Schiff sitting with Senator from Yep, the new senator from Delaware, Lisa Blunt Rochester. | ||
| We had Carol from Illinois. | ||
| Carol, mostly Braun. | ||
| We have Angela Olsha Brooks, Maryland. | ||
| Hamilton Harris was the second. | ||
| Hamila Harris, of course. | ||
| And then Lisa Blunt Rochester. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yes. | |
| Yeah. | ||
| Interchangeably three or two. | ||
| And there's Christy Noam, who's talking there with the congressman from New Jersey, Jeff Timberland. | ||
|
unidentified
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There we go. | |
| Is that Brooke Rollins, the Ag Secretary? | ||
|
unidentified
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Ag Secretary. | |
| It is sort of odd to have something like this with, I mean, there's so much, we're paying attention to the fashion because of some of the protests and so forth, having just done the Oscars two nights ago. | ||
|
President's Political Moment
00:06:04
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unidentified
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It's not quite as glamorous. | |
| It's not quite the same. | ||
| Not quite the same. | ||
|
unidentified
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But there is a lot more power. | |
| I would simply say, Jason, Dick, that nobody in the world cares what you or I are wearing. | ||
| Last year, Joe Biden took at least a half hour to get out of the chamber. | ||
| It was a moment for him politically that boosted him. | ||
| That got rid of some of the rumors of mental decline, etc. | ||
| And he worked that room for a half an hour. | ||
| It was one of the most, in a sense, iconic things I've ever seen in politics. | ||
| And do we expect President Trump to do the same? | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I don't know if he likes to chat. | ||
| I don't know if President Trump will be there as long. | ||
| I mean, in that span, Joe Biden had like two hot mic moments that went viral. | ||
| I mean, he was there for forever. | ||
| I don't know if you expect President Trump to be a lot long, but the reality is that, as I've talked to people close to him, he is enjoying this moment. | ||
| He's happy to be back in the White House. | ||
| He's happy to have a party that responds to him, that respects him. | ||
| And he's happy, you know, back to being the center of everything. | ||
| And so I think you're going to see him show that happiness, shaking hands with his friends, shaking hands, potentially people who don't like him very much, Democrats, kind of pushing them to say something potentially. | ||
| He's kind of reveling in this moment that he has now that he's back in the White House. | ||
| And so I think he is going to be there a long time. | ||
| Whether or not he's there as long as Joe Biden, I think only time will tell because Joe Biden, I mean, I remember being there, I mean, being, you know, covering it last year and being like, dang, can you leave? | ||
| I'm trying to go home. | ||
|
unidentified
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I did have an end of the night at your high school reunion type show. | |
| Wrap it up, Joe. | ||
| We'll see what Donald Trump does. | ||
|
unidentified
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Yeah, I would guess too that like some of that is, there's a little bit of wistfulness, you know, like that Biden was running for reelection, but who knows what kind of doubts he may have had about his own, you know, his own path. | |
| And this is like a beginning as opposed to just sort of an end, even if it seems like we've been in this loop for a while. | ||
| Yeah, you can see that the cabinet is still not completely seated. | ||
| And they're not going to bring him in while there's still people in the aisles, but he is nearby. | ||
| He's in the holding room next to the chamber and should be coming in shortly. | ||
| Just want to remind our viewers, obviously we're going to shut up as soon as the president gets in there. | ||
| We're going to listen to everything that happens. | ||
| We'll watch the president leave the room all without us. | ||
| There's Tulsi Gabbard, of course, talking with Chip Roy. | ||
|
unidentified
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Kelly Loveller on this. | |
| Yeah, that's right. | ||
| Former senator from Georgia, RFK. | ||
| I haven't seen RFK Jr. talk to a lot of people. | ||
| I don't know if that's a saying or anything. | ||
|
unidentified
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I saw him talk to Jeff Van Drew. | |
| I wonder if it was a conversation about fluoride. | ||
| Who knows? | ||
| Mr. Federal's intensity. | ||
| He really did not know that. | ||
| Did not know that. | ||
| Yeah, I mean, RFK is having quite the moment right now, too, with this measles outbreak, kind of going back and forth between whether or not he should be promoting vaccines, whether or not he should be promoting more homeopathic remedies that aren't necessarily shown to have much weight against a measles outbreak. | ||
| I would be interested to see if Donald Trump brings that up. | ||
| I'd be a little shocked if he does, but. | ||
| Again, the entire speech, of course, and the Democratic response. | ||
| Senator Alyssa Slotkin, freshman Democrat from Michigan, will be speaking from Michigan, and we will bring that to you live, of course. | ||
| And as always, after all that, we're going to get your reaction. | ||
| We're going to get your reaction. | ||
| Greta's going to be here getting reaction from members and some of the playout from the speech, et cetera. | ||
| And before the president comes in, let's check in one more time with Greta. | ||
| Quick excerpt from the president's speech tonight on tariffs. | ||
| You guys were talking about that and the impact of it on the economy. | ||
| This is from Jake Sherman. | ||
| Whatever they tariff us, we tariff them. | ||
| Whatever they tax us, we tax them. | ||
| If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market. | ||
| So you can expect to hear some tough talk from the president tonight on that. | ||
| That is ahead of the markets closing tonight. | ||
| CNBC with this headline, Dow Tumbles again, loses more than 1,300 points in two days as Trump ignites trade war. | ||
| Peter? | ||
| Esmond Wright, you were talking exactly about that. | ||
| Yeah, I mean, it is going to be incumbent upon the president to have the American people understand why he's putting in place these tariffs that in a lot of ways have a negative connotation, even amongst people within his own party. | ||
| They're not necessarily one of those quote-unquote conservative values. | ||
| It's something that even as lawmakers publicly say we are okay with giving Trump the latitude on tariffs, certainly privately they're concerned about them. | ||
| They don't like them. | ||
| And so I think that he's going to have to explain why. | ||
| Of course, he says that tariffs are his fourth favorite word in the dictionary. | ||
| It used to be his first. | ||
| I would be surprised if he does not repeat that again in an ad lib. | ||
| But yeah, I think that tariffs are going to be a large part of this. | ||
| For viewers who are seeing a State of the Union or a joint session for the first time, on your screen, the Republicans will be on the left and the Democrats will be on the right. | ||