| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
Of times you go to church. | |
| But at the same time, I think we need to realize that those institutions are sort of like when you think about running for office, you need a clubhouse, a political clubhouse to gather. | ||
| I look at the churches as an opportunity for people to go in there with their ideas of change in the world and to be able to find support, some material support, some psychological support. | ||
| I also believe you can get more things done working with others than just working alone. | ||
| John Kasich with his book, Heaven Help Us, Sunday night at 8 p.m. Eastern on C-SPAN's QA. | ||
| You can listen to Q&A and all of our podcasts on the C-SPAN Now app or wherever you get your podcasts. | ||
| Democracy. | ||
| It isn't just an idea. | ||
| It's a process. | ||
| A process shaped by leaders elected to the highest offices and entrusted to a select few with guarding its basic principles. | ||
| It's where debates unfold, decisions are made, and the nation's course is charted. | ||
| Democracy in real time. | ||
| This is your government at work. | ||
| This is C-SPAN, giving you your democracy unfiltered. | ||
| Welcome back to Washington Journal. | ||
| We're joined now by Representative Maxine Dexter. | ||
| She is a Democrat of Oregon and a member of the Natural Resources and Veterans Affairs Committee. | ||
| Welcome to the program. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thanks so much for having me. | ||
| And the Congresswoman is not going to be with us for very long, so if you'd like to talk to her, you can please start calling in now. | ||
| Democrats are on 202-748-8000. | ||
| Republicans are on 202-748-8001. | ||
| And Independents, 202-748-8002. | ||
| Congresswoman, last month you joined three other Democratic representatives on a trip to El Salvador to push for the release of Kilmar Obrego-Garcia. | ||
| Can you tell us about that trip? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, the trip was really intended to make sure that we were standing up for due process and for every person within our borders rights to due process. | |
| And Kilmar Obrego-Garcia was a key figure because the Supreme Court in a 9-0 ruling had ordered the president and the administration to facilitate Mr. Abrego Garcia's return. | ||
| The lack of action to that end should be concerning to every one of us because it appears that the president and this administration does not value the right to due process that all people have, not just citizens. | ||
| Every person in our borders has that right and we are not abiding by that right and we wanted to make sure that we were advocating and showing up as leaders at the legislative level, federal level, to make sure that it was clear that that is not in line with our values as Americans or with our Constitution. | ||
| And were you able to meet Mr. Abrego Garcia? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, we were not. | |
| We suspected that that might end up being the case. | ||
| We did not go there, you know, expecting that everyone was going to make sure that we had access. | ||
| We were on a no-dell. | ||
| It was not an official congressional delegation trip. | ||
| So we knew that there would be more challenges, but we wanted to make sure that we went to El Salvador, people saw that we were advocating, and that we, frankly, had press coverage that would elevate this in the public's eye, and I think we were successful. | ||
| And when you say it was a no-dell, who paid for the trip? | ||
|
unidentified
|
We all did out of personal expenses. | |
| And were you able to go to the prison itself? | ||
|
unidentified
|
We also requested through the U.S. Embassy an opportunity to see At least one of the facilities, and those were denied. | |
| The Hill reports that minority leader Jeffries was pushing back against criticism of Democratic representatives going to El Salvador. | ||
| You know, initially it said that he didn't want you guys to go and then push back against that. | ||
| And I mean, what have you heard from your leadership on the Democratic side about these visits and whether or not they're distracting from the agenda of focusing on the economy? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, I'm just going to address what is true. | |
| Our leadership knew we were going. | ||
| They did not tell us that they wanted us or didn't want us to go. | ||
| They believed that what we were doing was in line with representing our districts. | ||
| They absolutely agreed that due process is an issue. | ||
| We got back, and I've gotten nothing but support from our leadership. | ||
| So any other conjecture is beyond what I should be mentioning. | ||
| All right, let's talk to callers on the line for Republicans in Salinas, California. | ||
| Don, good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi, good morning. | |
| Yeah, my thing on all this stuff is like she's talking about she's all for due process and all the poor guy down in El Salvador. | ||
| You know what? | ||
| Set up a Zoom call. | ||
| Have him look at the judge in the eye. | ||
| Have the judge raise and lower his hammer and say, goodbye. | ||
| You can't come back. | ||
| Is it that hard? | ||
| Is it brain surgery? | ||
| These guys make a big deal about going to another country and pretending that Trump is this evil dictator and all this stuff. | ||
| Out here in America, we see something else. | ||
| We're seeing a bunch of selfish people. | ||
| We're seeing a bunch of hateful people who want us to hate our president and try everything in the world to make him look bad. | ||
| Like these trade wars, you're going to talk about these trade wars. | ||
| The Canadian prime minister said Canada's not for sale. | ||
| Well, who's trying to buy Canada? | ||
| Not Trump. | ||
| That's a stupid thing to say. | ||
| That's a dumb statement. | ||
| That's not a noble statement. | ||
| All right, Don. | ||
| Go ahead, Congresswoman Maxine Dexter. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, let me just cover what I really believe is important here. | |
| We went because due process is guaranteed within the U.S. Constitution. | ||
| That is not something that we can control directly. | ||
| How due process is carried out is not within the legislative branch's interest. | ||
| That is the judiciary. | ||
| What we had to do was stand up for the rights that are guaranteed to all people in the United States. | ||
| How Donald Trump is perceived is Donald Trump's doing. | ||
| Donald Trump may be perceived as good in some areas and not in others, and that is just for each American to decide how they feel about the leadership. | ||
| I personally am very concerned about the authoritarian-like actions by this administration. | ||
| Ignoring a Supreme Court 9-0 ruling should be a wake-up call for Americans. | ||
| So how people are perceiving this, we are a divided country right now, and that is really part of the problem. | ||
| Centering kindness and centering compassion for all people is absolutely something that I would continue and will continue to advocate for, and making sure that people have their basic rights is core to that. | ||
| There's a local newspaper in Oregon that quotes you as saying that chaos and cruelty is the point of President Trump's actions. | ||
| Can you explain that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I really think that that is the point. | |
| I think people are normalizing cruelty and chaos keeps people on their toes. | ||
| Not knowing what to expect is part of Donald Trump's brand. | ||
| And that chaos is creating real harm. | ||
| Our business community has no idea what the next tariff is going to be or how to plan for their businesses. | ||
| Chaos is disruptive, but it's also destructive. | ||
| And we are in the midst of chaos. | ||
| And it is based on cruelty to the last caller's point. | ||
| Normalizing, dehumanizing behavior is not something that any of us as Americans should be standing up for. | ||
| Here's Elizabeth in Eau Claire, Michigan Independent. | ||
| Good morning, Elizabeth. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Go right ahead. | ||
| You're on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| You know, we're all getting lost in the chaos and it's so exhausting. | ||
| I can't even stand the thought of having to vote in another election because it's not doing any good. | ||
| We've got some good legislators, but they are not, they're not making the point anything worthwhile. | ||
| It's all talk. | ||
| When I saw Schumer answer a question last week, and I can't even remember what the question was. | ||
| It was a ballot question, and he had a one-word answer. | ||
| And I thought, okay, that does it. | ||
| We need some new leadership. | ||
| We need some lawsuits. | ||
| This guy down in El Salvador, aren't there some lawsuits, something that the legislator can do? | ||
| But there just seems like they're just, I don't know, we're not a one-party system anymore. | ||
| They say, okay, the Democrats are the only one that's doing what's normal or trying to be honest. | ||
| Well, honestly, it's like they're doing it in a half-assed way. | ||
| Excuse my language. | ||
| It's not consistently proactive. | ||
| It's like, sit back and whine. | ||
| Okay, let's do something. | ||
| Sit back and, I mean, it's just like we're lost. | ||
| This country deserve feeling the burn with these tariffs. | ||
| The people don't, but the country, led by a bunch of, I don't know what their agenda is, but it's not good. | ||
| All right, Elizabeth. | ||
| Congresswoman, what do you think? | ||
| Are Democrats just sitting back and whining? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You know, the first thing I want to reflect back is our callers' frustration and sheer fatigue. | |
| I think that is really relevant to what I'm hearing from my constituents. | ||
| People very much are exhausted by all of this. | ||
| And they also are really concerned about what they think is a lack of clear leadership. | ||
| So what your caller is saying is very much what a lot of people are feeling. | ||
| But what I also want to say is Democrats in the minority are doing what we can for our districts. | ||
| And centering our districts is what we all are here to do. | ||
| My title and my job description are one and the same. | ||
| It's representative. | ||
| And so I am being very responsive to my district. | ||
| And I think when you do that, there isn't the same message coming out of the Democratic Party right now because we all have different districts. | ||
| And that is frustrating, I think, right now. | ||
| When the country wants a leader with clear direction, we absolutely have a leader with some clarity of what he's trying to do in the executive branch. | ||
| And what we are doing is trying to hold steady to American values and our constituents and make sure that people know that we are responding. | ||
| In my district, people demanded that I go to El Salvador. | ||
| They are concerned about democracy. | ||
| That is out. | ||
| You can watch the rest of this on the free C-SPAN Now video app as we take you over to Capitol Hill where the House is gaveling in. | ||
| Live coverage here on C-SPAN. | ||
| H.R. 1503 and passage of H.R. 881. |