| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Senate Majority Leader John Thune addressed President Trump's first 100 days in office, describing them as promises made, promises kept. | |
| He also took questions about the President's low approval rating and public concern over the administration's economic policies, specifically with tariffs. | ||
| Senators John Barrasso, Shelley Moore Capito, and James Lankford joined Leader Thune in support of the president's agenda. | ||
| How come you guys aren't joining the Kramer gaggle? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's it. | |
| Wrong prescription. | ||
| Dakotans. | ||
| Well, good afternoon. | ||
| Today marks the 100th day of the Trump presidency, and I think it has been a very historic 100 days. | ||
| And in my view, you could be described as promises made and promises kept. | ||
| And if you look right across the board, all the things the president campaigned on, said he was going to do, he was following through on those. | ||
| And chief among those is what's happening at our southern border. | ||
| The open borders policy that had been pursued by the Biden administration had led to all kinds of chaos at our southern border, lots of dangerous elements coming into the United States, and about, if you can believe this, 12,000 or so people per day coming across our southern border illegally. | ||
| 12,000. | ||
| You have a change of administration. | ||
| President Trump takes office. | ||
| That number plummets from 12,000 down to 230 a day. | ||
| That's what we're looking at right now. | ||
| And if you look at a year ago where we were, January, February, March, April, and those numbers, it's just as I described it. | ||
| It's about a 94-95 percent drop in one year thanks to the leadership of President Trump. | ||
| And so as we think about what we need to do to support those efforts, obviously we are involved, as you all know, in a process up here. | ||
| First step was budget resolution, which passed the House and Senate before the Easter break. | ||
| And now we're in the midst of the reconciliation bill, which is where we make law. | ||
| And we intend in doing that to ensure that the president and his team have the resources they need to continue keeping our southern border secure. | ||
| I think the American people made it very clear what they voted for last November. | ||
| And obviously, they are interested in making sure that we have good, strong military security, that we have good, strong border security, and that we have good, strong economic security in this country. | ||
| And those are the things that this Republican Congress, this Republican Senate, are committed to getting done. | ||
| And we're going to continue in the next 100 days to do what we've been doing in the last 100 days, and that is delivering on the commitments and on the agenda that the American people want to see happen, and to work with the President and his team and our colleagues and counterparts in the House of Representatives to see those things be made a reality. | ||
| Senator Barrasso. | ||
| Well, for the last 100 days, Republicans in Congress and the President of the United States have been working together fighting for the American people. | ||
| We all ran for office promising safety and prosperity for the folks of this great country. | ||
| And we have a lot of work to do to fix the failures of the last four years of the Biden administration to get our country back on track. | ||
| Start with the border. | ||
| You can see dramatic increases in the efforts to stem the flow of illegal immigrants from over 7,000 a day under Biden to now 7,000 a month under Trump. | ||
| Making the border secure means we are making our communities safe. | ||
| In terms of prices, you're seeing 50 different actions by Republicans on energy to make energy more affordable, specifically American energy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're making it easier to produce energy right here. | |
| That's the record of 100 days of the Trump Republican administration. | ||
| There's still more work to be done. | ||
| We still need to do the good work of blocking the $4 trillion tax increase that the Democrats want upon the American people. | ||
| We're going to do everything we can to stop it. | ||
| There's more work to be done in another 100 days coming to get that work done. | ||
| Senator Kepper. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Well, we're all talking about 100 days of the Trump administration, as you all are all writing about that as well. | ||
| And I think Senator Thune actually brought this, but I brought a little chart that shows you the blue lines or the numbers of encounters under the Biden administration. | ||
| The red lines in the first three months are a number of encounters under the Trump administration. | ||
| I mean, I think nothing spells success more than one of the biggest issues during the campaign, which was border security, which also leads to security in our communities and security not just within the country, but around the world. | ||
| And so I say congratulations to President Trump. | ||
| He said all along that he could do this, he would do this, and he would be effective. | ||
| President Biden, on the other hand, said, I can't do anything. | ||
| I can't do anything if the Congress doesn't act. | ||
| It's beyond my responsibilities. | ||
| This chart shows you that those were empty words. | ||
| And so as we move to the next 100 days, I think it's important to note, too, these are, you know, you have different types of, these are ones that are coming through the checkpoints. | ||
| The ones that are the gotaways, which never get caught, are down 99%. | ||
| There's deterrence that the president has put forward through his policies, and that's what's causing these numbers to come dramatically down with the support of us as the Senate and over in the House as well. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Senator Lincoln. | |
| So we're 100 days into the presidency, but that also has included 100 days of work for this Senate. | ||
| We actually started before the president was sworn in, obviously, as we were sworn in on the 3rd of January, but passing the Lake and Riley Act, doing a record number of nominations. | ||
| We've done more nominations than under the first Trump administration, the Biden administration, or you go all the way back to the Bush administration. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's been 25 years since we've moved as many nominations as fast as we've been able to move. | |
| So we've been here weekends, as this group knows extremely well. | ||
| We've been here very late at night Multiple times to be able to work through the process because we are determined to be able to get things done for the American people. | ||
| So that's involved dealing with energy permitting issues, which we've done over and over again to open up American energy that is working through the process with the president on trying to be able to limit illegal immigration coming across our border to secure our border and to be able to deal with criminal aliens. | ||
| We are a Senate determined to be able to get things done for the people in my state in Oklahoma and for our nation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And we've got a lot to get done. | |
| As this group knows extremely well because you've watched it, we are very determined on the budget aspects to dramatically reduce federal spending, to start knocking down $2 trillion worth of overspending that is still left over from the COVID time period to be able to get that spending down and to be able to make sure that we have a predictable low tax rate for the American people so we can continue to have a growing economy. | ||
| That's the task for the several months, but that was set up in the first 100 days to be able to be successful, starting immediately in these times now as the House and the Senate work together with the President to be able to get this done. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good afternoon, thank you. | |
| Can you characterize the difference in the response from congressional Republicans to President Trump this time around compared to 2017? | ||
|
unidentified
|
They seemed a little skeptical of him in 2017. | |
| That's not the case now. | ||
| Well, I mean, I think we all watched what happened in November and the mandate he got from the American people. | ||
| It was clear, it was decisive, and he had a clear message that he campaigned on, and he has been following through and delivering on that. | ||
| And I think a lot of us who served with him in the last term also saw the effects and the results of a lot of the decisions that he made with respect to policy. | ||
| And they were the right ones. | ||
| And in the end, he was proven right when it came to the economy. | ||
| It comes to the border, comes to national security. | ||
| This is a president who has a clear vision of what he wants to accomplish on behalf of the American people. | ||
| And I think he implemented that clearly in his first term. | ||
| And as we begin the first 100 days of this term, I think all of us believe that we want to be good partners in making sure that the agenda that he campaigned on and which the American people voted for is accomplished and delivered on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All of your polls show that Trump's numbers are underwater, that he is the least popular president in seven decades at this point in his presidency. | |
| Is it time for the administration to change course, particularly when it comes to the economy? | ||
| Well, I think the numbers on the economy, as you point out, may be related with some respects to the policy discussion that's being held about tariffs. | ||
| But if you look at overall, the things that this president and we are going to work with him to achieve, whether it's lessening the regulatory burden, creating energy dominance, preventing the $4 trillion tax increase coming at the end of the year that Senator Barroso talked about, or reducing federal spending and making the government more efficient, more economical, and a better return to the American taxpayer. | ||
| Those are things that the American people supported. | ||
| And I think when you're doing, when you're going through all this, you've got to take the long view. | ||
| And I think his policy decisions are the right ones. | ||
| And I think over time that will bear fruit. | ||
| You will see the results of that. | ||
| And he will, like he did in his first term, do some things for the economy that created economic conditions we hadn't seen in decades. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I know the U.S. Secretary called it a hostile and political act for companies like Amazon to display the cost of tariffs that they're having on consumers. | |
| Do you think consumers should know how much more they're going to be required to pay because of these tariffs? | ||
| Well, I mean, I think that's a conversation that the folks at Amazon will have to have with the White House, with the President. | ||
| You know, I think at the end of the day, again, this administration is going to be judged by the results that they get. | ||
| And if, in fact, they get better trade deals that change the way that other countries have mistreated us or treated us unfairly through the years, people will view it as a success. | ||
| And ultimately, you will see the economic conditions reflect that. | ||
| And I think in the end, you're going to have inflation. | ||
| It will be under control. | ||
| But I understand the short-term conclusions that people are drawing, or even some of the polling data that's out there. | ||
| That is what it is. | ||
| But the fact of the matter is that when you make policy decisions with a long-term outcome in mind, you've got to have some patience to get there. | ||
| And I think that the discussion that they're having with Amazon is something that will be a discussion between the administration and the company and the company leadership. | ||
| But I don't for a minute believe that this administration isn't making the right decisions that lead us to the policy outcomes that are going to make the American people more safe, more secure, and more economically prosperous. | ||
| We saw that in the first term, and I think they're doing the right things right now. | ||
| But we've got to wait, obviously, the outcome of what this tariff debate ultimately looks like. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Several of your Republican colleagues have asked you to take a very cautious approach when it comes to reconciliation and clean energy, IRA clean energy tax cuts, specifically some of those affecting your constituents, your farmers, sustainable aviation, fuel, biofuels, biodiesel. | |
| Can you support a surgical, cautious approach to reconciliation cuts and that's in this government? | ||
| Well, I mean, we're going to, ultimately, what gets included in a reconciliation bill will be determined by what there are 218 votes for in the House and 51 or 50 votes in the United States Senate. | ||
| And obviously, there are differences of opinion about some of the various provisions in previous legislation and the one that you noted. | ||
| And my guess is as we get further into these discussions, we will come up with a plan that gets us 218 in the House, 50 votes in the Senate, ultimately 51 if the Vice President has to be involved. | ||
| But to preserve the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and make sure that we have the right incentives in place for American energy production. | ||
| And whether that's in the renewable space, the conventional space, I think most of us up here agree that all of the above energy strategy when it comes to American energy is the right one. | ||
| And as we work through reconciliation, there will be some give and take and obviously conversations around some of the energy policies and provisions that are in place today. | ||
| But at the end of the day, it's about making America energy, not only energy independent, but energy dominant. | ||
| So, thanks, guys. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Back to the universe for Z-SPAN. | |
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| You and C-SPAN show the truth. | ||
| Thank you for C-SPAN. | ||
| Appreciate you guys' non-biased coverage. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You feed for C-SPAN that lets ordinary citizens participate in a national dialogue. | |
| What's so great about C-SPAN is that you hit every side. | ||
| C-SPAN truly is an unbiased channel. | ||
| You're doing a great service for the nation. | ||
| I've been watching the Washington Journal and using C-SPAN for 35 years, so appreciate you guys. | ||
| Thumbs up to C-SPAN. | ||
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| Live today on the C-SPAN networks. | ||
| At 10 a.m. Eastern, the House meets for morning speeches. | ||
| Then at 12 for legislative business, when they'll consider three resolutions to overturn EPA waivers that allow California to set stricter emissions standards for cars and pickup trucks. | ||
| In the evening, at 10:45, former Vice President Kamala Harris will speak at an event for Emerge, an organization that recruits and supports female Democratic candidates. | ||
| She's expected to address the first 100 days of the Trump administration in her first major speech since leaving office. | ||
| At 7 a.m. Eastern on C-SBAN 2, British Prime Minister Kier Starmer answers questions from members of the House of Commons on domestic and foreign policy. | ||
| Then at 8, Axios hosts conversations with House Speaker Mike Johnson, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, and the CEO of PBS on the accomplishments and challenges of the second Trump administration so far. | ||
| Also on C-SBAN 2, the Senate will return to consider a House-passed resolution to repeal a Biden administration Energy Department rule on new appliance energy efficiency requirements. |