| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Thumbs up to C-SPAN. | |
| The real news source for me is C-SPAN. | ||
| When they say they're unfiltered, they're unfiltered. | ||
| House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar spoke with reporters and criticized the president's first 100 days agenda and the negative impact the administration has had on everyday Americans. | ||
| He was joined by Caucus Vice Chair Ted Lieu of California and Representatives John Mannion of New York and April McLean Delaney of Maryland. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| So thankful to be joined by two members, in addition to our vice chair. | ||
| Appreciate John Mannion and April McLean Delaney joining us. | ||
| America is less safe and more expensive than it was 100 days ago. | ||
| Trump's reckless tariffs are going to make the high price of groceries, gas, housing, utilities, clothing, electronics, and other essential goods even worse. | ||
| Companies are laying off hardworking Americans, and we are staring down an impending supply chain crisis in a few weeks. | ||
| Our national security is threatened by amateur individuals sharing classified war plans in group chats. | ||
| Our communities are threatened because Trump released hundreds of criminals back onto the street. | ||
| Our freedoms are threatened because the Trump administration abandons the rule of law in due process by deporting an innocent man and even American children. | ||
| By every metric, Donald Trump has failed. | ||
| But instead of trying to put out the fire that he's caused, he's pouring gasoline on it by cutting $880 billion from Medicaid that will make health care more expensive and less affordable. | ||
| He wants to take food off of the table of American families, children, and veterans. | ||
| And he's doing this all for one simple purpose: to put into place massive tax breaks for his billionaire donor friends. | ||
| The Speaker went to the White House yesterday to get his marching orders, but if House Republicans want to avoid tying themselves to this sinking ship, they need to vote against the Republican budget bill. | ||
| You'll see House Democrats fighting back at every step of the way this week and next week as Republicans try to pass their dangerous and extreme budget. | ||
| It's my privilege to introduce the Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus, Ted Liu. | ||
| Thank you, Chairman Aguilar, and honor to be here with Representatives Manion and Delaney. | ||
| Donald Trump's first 100 days have been one of the worst first 100 days of any U.S. president in history. | ||
| That's because his policies are harming America. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And the American people have noticed. | |
| Multiple polls show Trump's approval ratings plummeting. | ||
| An Associate Press poll showed him at only 39% approval, 59% disapproval. | ||
| And a recent Washington Post poll also shows him at only 39% approval, the lowest of any U.S. president in 80 years. | ||
| One reason is because of tariffs. | ||
| His indiscriminate tariffs have increased prices. | ||
| I urge all of you to look at a statement from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. | ||
| They put out a statement saying that the tariffs are crushing the working class with higher prices. | ||
| And what's even worse is we don't even understand the rationale for these tariffs because the White House has put out two completely different rationales. | ||
| One of them is we're imposing these indiscriminate tariffs to try to strike DOs to go to a zero tariff situation with other countries and have more free trade, reduce trade barriers. | ||
| And then you have Donald Trump saying over the weekend, I'm doing these tariffs to create an external revenue service to use this as a permanent revenue source to take the money that consumers are paying and inject that into the federal government. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Those are completely opposite rationales, and the White House can't even figure out why it's doing these tariffs. | |
| And then let me just conclude now about Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. | ||
| I note that he has recently spent taxpayer funds for a makeup studio. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I hope it's going well and make him look better on TV. | |
| But in terms of his policies, they are completely awful, especially his operational ability to handle sensitive information. | ||
| You may have seen recent reporting showing that his phone number has now been all over the internet. | ||
| And if hackers have your phone number, there are a number of ways to surveil your phone. | ||
| I ask reporters to look into whether he used his personal phone overseas. | ||
| There is a hack called the SS7 attack. | ||
| It stands for standing system number seven. | ||
| I was part of an investigation a few years ago. | ||
| It doesn't matter how great your phone is, it's because of telecommunications providers you use. | ||
| There's a flaw in there that they can surveil your phone, and they could do that in the U.S. | ||
| It's even worse overseas. | ||
| So you all should check out whether Secretary Hegseth compromises phone if you use it overseas. | ||
| With that, it is my honor now to invite Representative Mannion to come speak to you. | ||
| Before being in Congress, he was a public school teacher and a state senator from the great state of New York. | ||
| Thank you, Vice Chair. | ||
| Good morning, everybody. | ||
| I'm John Mannion from Syracuse, New York. | ||
| I'm a member of the Agriculture and Education Workforce Committees, and I represent New York 22, Central New York and the Mohawk Valley. | ||
| We're at 100 days into this second Trump administration, and what we've seen is chaos, confusion, confrontation, and fear. | ||
| We're witnessing an extraordinary assault on our Constitution, on our norms, and our values, on our democracy, unlike what we've ever seen before, as we're watching in real time the dismantling of governmental guardrails. | ||
| One place where the damage is particularly clear is as it relates to our trade policy. | ||
| Tariffs should be used with precision and purpose, but not as blunt political instruments. | ||
| I believe now is the time for Congress to reassert the constitutional authority it continues to cede to the executive branch, and tariff policy is a good place for that to start. | ||
| New York 22 has a long history of manufacturing, of innovation. | ||
| We have a vibrant agricultural sector and world-class research institutions. | ||
| We're home to the largest private investment in the history of this country with Micron's historic $100 billion project to onshore semiconductor chip manufacturing in my district in Clay, New York. | ||
| It's a transformative project that will create thousands of jobs and solidify our region's role in the global economy and the global tech economy. | ||
| But just as importantly, it is about making sure that our national security and the resources that we use to preserve our national security is happening right here in our country. | ||
| My district is a down-the-middle district. | ||
| We have representatives at the state legislature and the counties that are both Republicans and Democrats. | ||
| Chips and Science was a piece of legislation that required all levels of government from both parties and stakeholders and experts in the field to negotiate it, get it right so that we can make sure that we put our national security at a premium and the emerging threats as it relates to supply chains. | ||
| We had to address that. | ||
| We did address it. | ||
| It was done in the last Congress and as a result, that project is moving forward. | ||
| When it comes to tariffs, you know, I've looked at maps with arrows that show the negative impact, and no arrow is bigger than the state of New York. | ||
| I live less than 100 miles from the Canadian border. | ||
| My mother grew up in a town called Chattigaway, New York, which is five miles from the Canadian border. | ||
| But you don't have to be five miles from the border to see the impact that already exists. | ||
| Tariffs are necessary tools that can be used for national security, for protecting hardworking Americans and their jobs and to grow that. | ||
| But the current administration's approach lacks strategy and nuance, fails to recognize beneficial relationships between our friends, our allies, and our business partners like Canada. | ||
| In Central New York and the Mohawk Valley, we rely heavily on trade with Canada for both imports and exports. | ||
| Sometimes a product's production crosses the border multiple times, sometimes within the same company, and still tariffs would be imposed on those pre-manufactured products. | ||
| Materials come from Canada and our products go to Canada. | ||
| We have multiple industries that are being impacted in agriculture, lumber, metal production, as I mentioned, our building materials for an important plant that is coming into my district. | ||
| There are double and triple tariffs that are hurting the bottom line. | ||
| They're hurting jobs. | ||
| Contracts are being canceled. | ||
| Contracts are not moving forward in the negotiation process. | ||
| Costs are being driven up. | ||
| It makes absolutely zero sense. | ||
| So we have to get this right. | ||
| The relationship between my district and Canada is so intricate, and it goes beyond just commerce. | ||
| Canadians are our friends. | ||
| They're often our family members. | ||
| As I said, they're our business partners. | ||
| And what newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Kearney made remarks last night, and he called this the American betrayal. | ||
| To hear stories of Canadians taking American products and turning them over so as to easily identify that product as American-made is unbelievable, something that I would not imagine in our lifetime. | ||
| And it is an unnecessary act because of the unnecessary acts that have come out of this administration. | ||
| The Prime Minister pledged to find new relationships and new agreements with reliable trade partners outside of the United States of America. | ||
| And I do agree that describing this situation as a tragedy is accurate. | ||
| My conversations with New York farmers, including dairy producers, owners of apple orchards, maple syrup producers, and other industries like lumber, the interconnectedness between New York State's economy and Canada is vital to our collective success. | ||
| Items like fertilizer, potash, these come from Canada. | ||
| 90% of our potassium, not just in central New York, but all across this country, comes from Canada. | ||
| So we must use precision when it comes to our trade policy. | ||
| Tariffs are basically a tax on American consumers and businesses, continues to drive up costs for essential items like groceries, fuel, agricultural supplies. | ||
| Where I'm from in central New York, we want policies that reflect the realities of our interconnected economy with our friend and ally, Canada. | ||
| America, the people of New York 22, our farmers. | ||
| We all need policies that make sense, not a whipsaw, on-again, off-again tariff game that this current administration is playing. | ||
| It's reckless. | ||
| The impact will be massive. | ||
| There will be waves of negative impact on multiple sectors of our economy. | ||
| And that means it's going to hurt hardworking Americans. | ||
| It's going to hurt small businesses. | ||
| We must restore our standing as a reliable trade partner, not just with Canada, but with our other allies and trade partners around the world. | ||
| Simply, we are hurting consumers. | ||
| We're hurting Americans. | ||
| We're hurting businesses because of a lack of a cohesive strategy. | ||
| We need to be more thoughtful. | ||
| We need to be more targeted. | ||
| We need to strengthen our economy without placing undue burdens on hardworking Americans. | ||
| So I ask that we have sanity to our trade policy and that we restore our country's standing around the world, not just as a reliable trade partner, but as the beacon of democracy around the world. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I appreciate the opportunity to speak. | ||
| And with that, I will pass along the microphone to my colleague, Representative April McLean-Delaney. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| I represent the 6th District of Maryland, and when elected, made a commitment to my constituents to seek common sense, common ground solutions. | ||
| Sadly, the past 100 days, I've desperately been trying to find either common sense or common ground. | ||
| And in fact, the chaos that has ensued has hurt everyone within my district. | ||
| My district is as economically diverse as any district in the country. | ||
| It starts not far from here in Montgomery County, where NIH researchers are curing cancer, and NIST employees are establishing parameters for AI innovation. | ||
| And it goes all the way to beautiful mountain and western Maryland, where family farms are providing their bounty to our community. | ||
| And it borders West Virginia and Pennsylvania. | ||
| In my district, no one has escaped the harmful impact of Trump tariffs and isolation policy or his indiscriminate cuts to federal workers. | ||
| I represent over 35,000 federal workers at agencies such as NIH, the National Institute of Cancer, NIST, our fire academy, and Fort Dietrich. | ||
| Farmers are very concerned about selling their crops because of tariff impacts, but also because of markets drying up. | ||
| Narwhic they normally sold into, like through USAID or through SNAP programs. | ||
| And cancer and innovation researchers and the surrounding biotech and tech-private markets have been dealt a devastating blow from government cuts to both agencies and research and innovation engines. | ||
| Small businesses and consultants are cratering because of lack of business, and this in turn is hurting everyday smaller businesses, markets, salons, sole proprietorships who depend on spending in their community. | ||
| And this includes tourism and business linked to our seven national parks in this district. | ||
| We are home to the CNO Canal, which gets as many visitors per year as Yellowstone. | ||
| With respect to specific examples, last week I toured the Volvo factory in Hagerstown, Maryland, where they make MAC trucks. | ||
| I was privileged to even get to drive one. | ||
| They produce the engines and the axles for these vehicles and are pioneering some EV technology. | ||
| But in the short term, they told me they have 1,700 workers. | ||
| But instead of reshoring and bringing innovation and investment into the United States, Volvo is projected to cut 50 to 100 workers due to tariffs and economic insecurity. | ||
| They do not know how the market will react, and more cuts might come later. | ||
| Moreover, I have met with each of my five county farm bureaus: Montgomery County, Frederick, Allegheny, Washington County, Garrett, and they're all concerned about crop market prices, SNAP, and reimbursement for investments they've made into their farms, which have not been reimbursed by government programs for which they were promised. | ||
| It is a tsunami hitting them from every angle. | ||
| And toppled with that are threatened cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security. | ||
| And of course, rural health clinics are really at risk in my district because of their dependence on Medicaid. | ||
| These self-inflicted, nonsensical, penny-foolish and pound-foolish policies are impacting our economic security, our U.S. competitiveness, and our national security. | ||
| Much more to say, innovation and our trust internationally in the U.S. and the U.S. economy and our U.S. dollar. | ||
| Having said the above, I stand ready to work on common sense common ground solutions and across the aisle to make a reality the things we all care about, including focusing on inflation, innovation, affordability, and fortifying our U.S. resilience, our U.S. competitiveness, and our national security. | ||
| I thank you, and I look forward to taking any questions. | ||
| I appreciate Representatives Delaney and Manion sharing perspectives from their district with us. | ||
| Questions? | ||
| Michael? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good to see you, Chairman. | |
| Former President Trump felt the Atlantic in an interview they published yesterday that he doesn't think Democrats have a leader or know what they're doing, giving their criticisms from Residents 100A. | ||
| How do you respond to that? | ||
| And do you see criticisms of the party lacking a leader as a challenge going into 2026? | ||
| Not at all. | ||
| Our strength of purpose and resolve is driven exactly by the constituents that Representatives Mannion and McLean Delaney are talking to. | ||
| Our strength and our focus is on improving our communities and this country. | ||
| And the chaos that we see from Donald Trump is not helping that. | ||
| It's not helping the fact that he said he would lower costs on day one, the failed promises. | ||
| This is just a deflection by the president for promises that he has been unable and unwilling to achieve. | ||
| So it doesn't concern us that he wants to play politics because he can't deliver for the American public. | ||
| Our focus is just that. | ||
| We will continue to be guided by the strengths of our communities and the focus of our districts, lowering the costs that people are burdened by, increasing rents, increasing grocery costs, increasing costs of living. | ||
| Those are the things that the American public is concerned about, and they don't see a leader in Donald Trump that is willing to do that. | ||
| We're working every day, House Democrats, to lead with that example. | ||
| We look forward to the opportunity when we have gavels so we can carry forward policy that does just that. | ||
| Vice Chair? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| Democrats, we respond to the American people. | ||
| The American people are our bosses. | ||
| Unlike many House Republicans who basically take direction from one person and completely flip their views just because Trump says something, most Republicans are free traders. | ||
| They would be aghast at indiscriminate tariffs, and now they remain silent just because Trump said it. | ||
| Most Republicans understand Russia is a threat to the world and the United States, and many of them are now silent just because Trump has this bizarre relationship with Putin where he bends the knee to Putin. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So Democrats operate differently. | |
| We're with the people of America. | ||
| We're from the ground up. | ||
| And that's why Poe after poe now shows Donald Trump at only 39 percent approval because American people don't like what one man is trying to do. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Questions? | |
| Riley? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Now that Congressman Connolly is stepping aside off the oversight, can you walk us through the process of replacing him? | |
| Will there be an election? | ||
| What's the timeline? | ||
| Can that be a caucus-wide vote? | ||
| There's no vacancy in the oversight committee. | ||
| First of all, Jerry Connolly has spent 30 years representing Northern Virginia. | ||
| He is an amazing public servant who continues his work. | ||
| We wish him the best. | ||
| He has been incredibly honest and transparent about his battle with cancer. | ||
| At this moment, as you mentioned, he will be stepping aside. | ||
| We will be conducting ourselves in a way that he desires, that he and the committee desire, and that is for leadership to step up and help run the meetings as well. | ||
| And we heard a presentation from Representative Lynch this morning on behalf of the Oversight Committee, but there's no vacancy at the committee. | ||
| That's our position. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Nick? | |
| I want to ask about the first three days. | ||
| Leader Jeffries up here yesterday was talking about it being an all-hands-and-duck moment. | ||
| Democrats, as you guys think about the next few weeks, can we expect to see more demonstrations like what we saw from Leader Jeffries on Sunday on the steps? | ||
| Are you thinking of other, perhaps unorthodox, forms of protest, Roger? | ||
| There will be public displays where we have our perspectives heard, but just reflecting on Sunday, I thought it was great that Senator Booker and Leader Jeffries, two people of faith, on a Sunday, sitting and talking about the dangerous and reckless behavior of this administration and how it is un-American and makes life difficult for members of our community. | ||
| I thought it was organic and a good testament to the good trouble that they were trained under in John Lewis. | ||
| I think that House Democrats look forward to exercising our viewpoints, maybe creating a little bit of good trouble and making our perspectives heard, but doing it together as a caucus family. | ||
| We'll be working with the Senate leadership as well, and we'll have plenty to say as a group moving forward in the next couple weeks. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, thank you. | |
| In the first 100 days, has the president done anything that rises to the level of impeachable offenses? | ||
| What the president has done is he sought to erode the fabric of our country by stoking chaos, fear, division. | ||
| This is not unlike behavior he has done in the past. | ||
| But right now, we will deal with the tools in front of us and the policies that he and House Republicans have placed forward, which are reckless cuts to the health care system, to our supplemental nutrition that is relied on by women and children and families across this country. | ||
| Those are the policies that we're going to push back against. | ||
| And those are the items that the American public is paying attention to. | ||
| Impeachment is at times a tool that can be used. | ||
| This president is no stranger to that. | ||
| He's been impeached twice. | ||
| But we don't have any confidence that House and Senate Republicans would do their jobs. | ||
| And so this is not an exercise that we're willing to undertake. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Have you had any contact with Congressman Long Cross since he's turned hospitalized? | |
| Any indication of when he might return or most of the other contingency? | ||
| I haven't. | ||
| I know other members of the leadership team have. | ||
| I don't have any updates on him. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Vice President Harris is making a speech tomorrow just to remember Daymark. | |
| Anything you're looking out for in her speech, anything you would like her to touch on? | ||
| Vice President Harris is a leader, and I would expect that she's going to talk about the willingness of Americans and women to serve in higher office. | ||
| Her perspective is something that is sought after, and what she has experienced in the highest offices in the land to starting as a local DA, being a statewide office holder, I think she has a lot to share about her experiences in elected life, what lessons can be learned by others who are interested in taking that step. | ||
| It is an incredibly difficult step, as our two new member colleagues understand. | ||
| Taking on this burden of public service is such a blessing. | ||
| And I think she has a lot to share that we could learn from. | ||
| So I look forward to hearing the speech myself. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| I'm curious, in these first 100 days, how does Democratic leadership feel like Trump's presidency has shaped the Democratic Party? | ||
| And how far into the soul searching process is the party? | ||
| You know, our party is focused. | ||
| And we're focused on our members. | ||
| House Democratic leadership is focused on 213 members of our caucus with the two vacancies, taking our cues from our members. | ||
| And the focus that they have is, as the Vice Chair mentioned, of their districts and the experiences. | ||
| The unease, the uncertainty, the burden that local farmers and businesses face in New York and Maryland, the difficult decisions that they're having to make, that guides our caucus. | ||
| We feel that uncertainty, the uncertainty of seniors asking us in town halls whether Social Security is going to be there for them, whether Donald Trump and House Republicans are going to make life more unaffordable for them and their kids and their grandkids. | ||
| Those are the questions, and that is our focus. | ||
| So we have the leadership team in place. | ||
| Leader Jeffries is doing an amazing job, guided by the focus of our members and using our committees to push back against these terrible policies. | ||
| We're going to continue that work ahead. | ||
| But Donald Trump is also, I would say, a galvanizing force. | ||
| It's something that unites us because of how dangerous and careless he acts using the highest office in the land. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| Democrats are trying to help the American people not be hurt by Trump's harmful policies. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I was talking to a small business owner. | |
| She makes plush toys. | ||
| They're actually patriotic plush toys, represent different states and so on. | ||
| And she had her shipment from, they're made in China, and so the shipment was on the water, and then tariffs come in. | ||
| And now, all of a sudden, she has to pay $40,000, $50,000 when they arrive in the United States. | ||
| And those costs are passed on to consumers, but she's now come up with all of a sudden $40,000, $50,000 she never had before. | ||
| And she would love to be able to make these toys in the United States, but guess what? | ||
| She can't even get the materials here because America doesn't make the materials for plush toys. | ||
| So you have a whole bunch of companies who, when they make products, they have all sorts of different components. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And the White House just has a really stupid view of this. | |
| You can't just reshore something if that product relies on all these raw materials from other countries. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It gets very, very complicated. | |
| They have this very simplistic version that you can just reshore these companies. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, you can't do that. | |
| And because you can't do that, what's going to end up happening is just going to harm American companies and American consumers. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And we just want the administration to get rid of these indiscriminate tariffs and put rationality back in the economy and lower prices. | |
| Last question. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The House report today in language to block resolutions of inquiry until October. | |
| How does that hinder House Democrats just back against Trump? | ||
| This is a pretty similar line that the Speaker and Republican leadership have taken. | ||
| They have used rules to turn off our ability to fight back against dangerous tariffs. | ||
| They are opposed to bipartisan solutions that would make our voices heard to end these national emergencies that Donald Trump is using to raise prices of families in our districts. | ||
| So this is a tool that the leadership has chosen to use and to put off future votes, put off opportunities for work for us to work in a bipartisan basis. | ||
| I'm not surprised by it. | ||
| This is something that they have done and I would imagine will continue to do because they are afraid that both Democrats and Republicans oppose their dangerous and reckless policies. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Perfect. |