| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
So it's a huge benefit. | |
| I hope that all these streaming services carry C-SPAN as well because it's an important service to the American people. | ||
| I'm actually thrilled that this time in Washington Journal, I'm getting a lot of really substantive questions from across the political aisle. | ||
| Our country would be a better place if every American just watched one hour a week. | ||
| They could pick one, two, or three. | ||
| Just one hour a week, and we'd all be a much better country. | ||
| So thank you for your service. | ||
| This is Joel Payne joining us. | ||
| He is the chief communications officer for Move On here to talk about not only the federal shutdown that's ongoing, but upcoming, the No Kings rally. | ||
| Good morning to you. | ||
| Thanks for having me, Pedro. | ||
| For people, probably remember this back from early in the year, but remind people about the purpose of the rally. | ||
| So No Kings, there was a June rally. | ||
| It actually coincided with the military parade that Donald Trump's administration was putting on in D.C. | ||
| That rally had events, over 2,500 events all over the country, big events in Philly, big events in Chicago, but also big events in some small cities as well. | ||
| Well, estimates that we had upwards of 5 million people that came out to peacefully protest that day. | ||
| We decided that was so impactful and it was such a good opportunity to create community. | ||
| We wanted to do it again with a number of coalition partners. | ||
| One of the things that's exciting about No Kings, and by the way, folks can go to nokings.org to get more information, it's really grassroots-led. | ||
| I mean, our organizations are really just there to provide a platform for a lot of these grassroots organizers to have the opportunity to create this community. | ||
| And I think that we're expecting just as good of a turnout as we did in June and obviously prioritizing peaceful protests and the opportunity for people to speak out and be heard. | ||
| Is there an overall theme to this rally versus the one that you had earlier this year? | ||
| I think the theme to the No Kings Day of Action, just like it was in June, was for people to affirm with one voice in unison in America, we have no kings, not now, not ever. | ||
| And the impetus for it is the Trump administration overreach and abuse of power that millions of Americans are seeing. | ||
| A lot of our organizations that are involved are really feeling this through feedback from our members. | ||
| And those members want to create community in their communities. | ||
| They want to know that other people are seeing the same thing that they're seeing and also still believe in the America that they believe in. | ||
| There was a characterization of the rallies made by Speaker Johnson just recently. | ||
| And I want to play a little bit of what he had to say about it, or at least how he characterized it and get your response to it. | ||
| But we've heard, and many of you have reported already, this hate America rally that they have coming up for October 18th. | ||
| The Antifa crowd and the pro-Hamas crowd and the Marxists, they're all going to gather on the mall. | ||
| We've got some House Democrats selling t-shirts for this event. | ||
| It is an outrageous gathering for outrageous purposes, but the Democrats and the Senate have shown that they're afraid of that crowd, that they don't want to bow, that they want to bow to them, bow the knee to them, and they don't want to take incoming from them. | ||
| And so they're willing to hold the American people hostage so that they don't have to face an angry mob that's a big chunk of their base. | ||
| Now, if that's a rumor, they need to come out and clarify that it's not, but that is what we are hearing is their actual motivation, and it is outrageous. | ||
| All this has got to come to an end. | ||
| Mr. Payne, that's the characterization he offers. | ||
| What do you say? | ||
| That is unconscionable that the speaker would say that, particularly because, and he mentioned that there will be a rally this weekend in Washington, D.C. There'll also be rallies all over the country. | ||
| In fact, pretty sure that there are a number of rallies in Arkansas, probably some either near or in his district. | ||
| So he should actually talk to his constituents who are going to be participating likely in these rallies about what they think. | ||
| They certainly don't hate America. | ||
| The height of loving America is working to make it better, is critiquing government, is speaking out peacefully and speaking out with your own voice and not allowing the government in power to tell you what you can and can't say. | ||
| So that's incredibly disingenuous and disappointing from the speaker. | ||
| But the only thing he didn't say there was go to nokings.org, learn more information. | ||
| You know, who knows? | ||
| Maybe some of the speakers' constituents want to show up this weekend. | ||
| What about the characterization he made towards the end is that it's progressives like you pushing Democrats on Capitol Hill to act in the way they're doing because they're scared, or at least they want to bend the knee. | ||
| You know, it's interesting. | ||
| What I think is so frustrating, probably to someone like Mike Johnson, is that a movement like No Kings, you can't really control command and control from Washington, D.C. | ||
| I mean, No Kings is not taking orders from anybody. | ||
| There are no Democrats and certainly no Republicans that this day of action is corresponding to. | ||
| Certainly there will be elected officials. | ||
| Certainly there will be political leaders who will speak there. | ||
| But this is grassroots-led. | ||
| There is no coordination at all with any members of Congress. | ||
| In fact, No Kings was announced weeks before the shutdown was even a consideration as it's in its current form. | ||
| So that characterization is untrue. | ||
| And what's also disappointing is it does seem like Republicans have gotten to this place where anyone who disagrees with them, they feel like they want to say that they are not real, that they want to suggest that there's something about their motivations, that they're being compensated in a certain way. | ||
| What I'd say to any Republican is: be my guest. | ||
| I mean, if you want to think that the real anger and frustration that people are feeling in this country is not real, go take it to your voters and see what they think. | ||
| Joel Payne of Move On with us 202-748-8001 for Republicans. | ||
| Democrats 202-748-8000. | ||
| Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| You can text us at 202-748-8003. | ||
| Before we take calls, Move On. | ||
| I know people probably know MoveOn.org as it started, but how would you characterize Move On? | ||
| What's it about? | ||
| Well, MoveOn's been around for over 25 years. | ||
| It is a grassroots-led organization with millions of members all across the country. | ||
| We actually have members in every congressional district and in all 50 states. | ||
| And what we really do is provide an opportunity for everyday Americans to speak out and to be heard. | ||
| We have our petition platform, which is primarily a way that a lot of our members offer an opinion, whether it's on a cultural issue or a political issue. | ||
| And by the way, I think that there's this thought that all Move On members are kind of coffeehouse liberals. | ||
| Our members actually kind of span the ideological spectrum. | ||
| They span the geographic spectrum. | ||
| And I think there are folks who are concerned about their country and concerned about their community and want to find a way to get involved. | ||
| Is progressive a fair label, though, overall, or how would you define those within it? | ||
| Oh, certainly we align with progressive values. | ||
| But I do think that one of the things that's interesting to me right now is I actually think that the way that people think about politics right now, the kind of left-right continuum, I think is changing. | ||
| You've had just as many people activated by Donald Trump's abuse of power and overreach who would consider themselves traditionally independents or Republicans as they might consider themselves Democrats. | ||
| So, you know, I think that those old labels don't really work. | ||
| And I will tell you, within our membership, there is great ideological diversity. | ||
| Let's hear from some callers. | ||
| We'll start with Jonathan in Philadelphia, Independent Line. | ||
| You're on with Joel Payne of Move On. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| Yes. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
| I was actually holdover from the last segment, but I'll try to update my commentary to be relevant to this topic. | ||
| Yeah, I don't, I'm not a huge fan of moveon.org. | ||
| The no king seems to be a very poorly constructed message. | ||
| We don't have a king's problem. | ||
| We have a billionaire's problem. | ||
| We have massive wealth and income inequality. | ||
| And when you start talking about kings, it gets very confusing because billionaires are not left. | ||
| They are not right. | ||
| They hold power. | ||
| They're not American. | ||
| They're abroad as well. | ||
| And so that would be a much better thing to march behind is no billionaires. | ||
| The other part that worries me a lot about C-SPAN is this use of many think tanks that come on. | ||
| They're all very privileged. | ||
| They're all very biased. | ||
| They're all very wealthy. | ||
| They come on and say, oh, we're just a grassroots organization. | ||
| And that is always patently false. | ||
| And we don't get to see a disclosure of the information or really a CZ on who the gentleman is here that's speaking. | ||
| But it's a very privileged perspective. | ||
| And I would like to see the left in this country get back to fundamentals. | ||
| Fundamentals would be really going back to sort of the civil rights and just an idea of equal protection under the law, a message of economic justice, a message that is anti-war with specific legislative goals and not something, not a slogan like anti-kings. | ||
| Okay, okay. | ||
| You got your point out? | ||
| We invited the guests to come on this program. | ||
| Mr. Payne. | ||
| Yeah, and I believe that the speaker was John there. | ||
| I really appreciate his question. | ||
| I actually don't think we disagree as much as maybe the early premise of his question would suggest. | ||
| We actually think that the frustration with billionaires with power being centralized and a couple wealthy individuals is very important. | ||
| I think that's very much a part of the types of things that people will be protesting peacefully at No Kings this weekend. | ||
| It's not the existence of wealthy people. | ||
| It is the fact that you have a government that has transferred a trillion dollars in wealth from the working class, from people who are economically distressed to the wealthy and the well-connected. | ||
| And that's not what Donald Trump said he was going to do. | ||
| Donald Trump said he was going to level the playing field. | ||
| He was going to make things better for working Americans. | ||
| And so far, the grade is not coming back good on Donald Trump's promise there. | ||
| From Ralph. | ||
| Ralph, on our line for Democrats, Georgia. | ||
| Hello. | ||
| You're next up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Good morning, sir. | ||
| Here's my question. | ||
| Hey, I'm over 80 years old. | ||
| I marched as a teenager. | ||
| I marched for the right to vote. | ||
| I marched for the right to get jobs. | ||
| I marched for equal opportunity and everything during my time. | ||
| During that time, there were several people that went to jail because people were agitated. | ||
| Some of them marches and some of them went to jail. | ||
| Not that they did anything wrong, but they were there peacefully demonstrating. | ||
| Now, my thing is, if I join your march and I get out there and I get pulled off to the side or someone agitate me or I look at something long wrong, which was happening then, where do your organizations stand in coming to my defense? | ||
| Am I going to have to pay for my own defense? | ||
| Am I going to get broke because I can't afford it? | ||
| Black people that have jobs right now are very much not going to get out there and speak up because they have to go to work. | ||
| That's the reason I wouldn't work for the government before. | ||
| This didn't just start here on the trunk. | ||
| It started before. | ||
| It was overt discrimination, covert. | ||
| Now it's over again. | ||
| Mega was there. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Got your point, Ralph. | ||
| I hope Ralph is maybe still with us for a second. | ||
| One, Ralph, thank you so much for just the years and the decades of service you've put into this country in terms of protesting to make it better. | ||
| And I'm sure you peacefully protested. | ||
| And that's actually where I want to start. | ||
| This opportunity with No Kings is a chance for Americans who are frustrated and who are agitated and feeling alienated to peacefully come out in their communities and to protest. | ||
| And I will tell you, our organizations believe firmly that Americans should not feel under threat. | ||
| They should not have their government turned against them. | ||
| They should not have government weaponized against their rights, their basic fundamental freedoms. | ||
| So, Ralph, we're fighting for folks like you, the work that you've done all throughout your life and the work that I hope to see you do maybe at a No Kings rally this weekend. | ||
| But I just want to express tons of gratitude for the fact that you were doing that work back then when it was hard. | ||
| And it sounds like you're interested in still doing it right now when it might still be hard. | ||
| When it comes to the shutdown and the call, I referenced it previously. | ||
| What's the move on stance to what's currently going on in Capitol Hill? | ||
| Yeah, I appreciate the question. | ||
| So move on pretty early on, a couple of weeks ahead of the recent government funding cliff. | ||
| We polled our members. | ||
| I mean, we have millions of members across the country. | ||
| We asked them if there was the opposition that was going to fight Donald Trump's government, what that government was fighting, the funding, the values, what would be the priority to fight on? | ||
| And they said resoundingly the issue of health care. | ||
| Over 90% of our members, 91% in fact, that responded said they think that health care is the line in the sand that Democrats should hold. | ||
| And it's been encouraging that Democrats, the Democratic leadership, Leader Schumer and Leader Jeffries, have done that. | ||
| They've held their caucuses together and they have held the line on health care. | ||
| There is a health care emergency in this country. | ||
| I understand this is against the backdrop of a government funding conversation and fight that might feel a little diffuse for the American people, but that health care emergency is not. | ||
| I mean, you have premiums that are going to double, that are going to spike in significant ways for people all across the country. | ||
| By the way, not in, quote, blue America. | ||
| They're going to do it, that those premiums are going to spike in parts of the country that are represented by Republicans. | ||
| They should actually have a vested interest in coming together with Democrats to resolve this. | ||
| And our members feel that way. | ||
| It's good to know that there are Democrats in Congress who are fighting for that. | ||
| And I would just say finally, a message that our members want to send to members of Congress is that if they have our back, if they fight for us, we'll have their back and we'll fight for them. | ||
| And so as far as it continuing on, you're okay with the current stance Democrats are taking when it comes to using the CR to make these arguments. | ||
| I don't think anybody, particularly our members, take any solace in the fact that the government is shut down, that there are services that are impacted, that people's livelihoods are being affected. | ||
| But it does seem like there's a solution in hand. | ||
| I mean, you've heard several notable Republicans, everyone from Leader Thune to even Leader Johnson to other notable Republicans, President Trump even, have all acknowledged that something probably should be done related to these health care premium spikes. | ||
| So it just belies the question, why wouldn't you get everybody in a room and come up with a solution attached to this government funding challenge? | ||
| It feels like that's a pretty easy thing to resolve. | ||
| Seems like there's some stubbornness and some hubris that's impacting the process right now. | ||
| And that's not what the American people sent Republicans to Washington. | ||
| One of the arguments Republicans use is let's resolve the CR issue clean and then have these discussions. | ||
| Well, here's the challenge with that. | ||
| Republicans have not proved themselves to be trustworthy partners in terms of negotiation and in holding true to their word. | ||
| I mean, Donald Trump has used the rescissions process, which I know can feel a little inside the beltway for a lot of folks who might be watching at home. | ||
| But essentially, Donald Trump is using a process legislatively to go and to pick things out of the budget that he does not agree with that don't align with his agenda. | ||
| And he is using a lower threshold to remove those things from the budget as opposed to what they were approved from the budget for. | ||
| That means that you can't really trust that Donald Trump, that Mike Johnson, that John Thune are going to stick to their word if they say, we are going to fund this priority. | ||
| And we think, and our members think it is reasonable and it is laudable that Democrats are fighting on those issues. | ||
| Joel Payne, the chief communications officer for Move On, joining us for this conversation. | ||
| Let's hear from Greg in Washington State, Independent Line. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Joel. | |
| How are you doing today? | ||
| Thanks for talking to me. | ||
| Good to be with you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hey, I'm from Washington State, and we're taking quite a bit of hits. | |
| We're taking quite a bit of a hit from the funds being withheld that are already designated for us out here. | ||
| And I got a question as a leader focused on grassroots action. | ||
| I'm sure you've seen the data, data showing the massive fiscal imbalance where blue states are the net donors and red states are the net recipients of federal taxes. | ||
| Given the escalating political hostility and threats of national divorce coming from the recipient states, I think we have a bold idea out here. | ||
| We want your movement to consider escrow money. | ||
| Escrow the money. | ||
| The question is: does your organization believe a grassroots movement should push blue states to legally explore withholding their net surplus federal tax dollars into a dedicated alimony fund as a form of fiscal leverage and self-defense? | ||
| Is this a nonviolent, effective way to force the negotiation? | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Greg, we'll let our guests answer. | ||
| Yeah, well, I appreciate that question. | ||
| I think what Greg is getting at is that you have a government right now that is specifically targeting states that are run by Democratic governors and mayors and that have Democratic local leadership. | ||
| And many of those states are the biggest contributors to the federal budget. | ||
| I mean, states like California, states like Illinois, others that have local Democratic representation seem to be on the wrong side of Donald Trump's agenda. | ||
| And so Donald Trump is looking to weaponize the levers of government against them, restrict services, restrict resources to them. | ||
| I certainly agree with the assertion that that is wrong. | ||
| And I think it's an interesting question to take to our members. | ||
| We have a petition platform that has been going for over 25 years. | ||
| Would encourage Greg and others who support ideas like that, take to that platform, be empowered, use our petition platform to share ideas like that, build that argument with the millions of members and those that we hope to be members in the future. | ||
| And we'd love to learn more about what folks are doing all around the country. | ||
| This is John in California, Republican line. | ||
| Hi there. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hi there. | |
| It's interesting that there has been more bashing of Trump on C-SPAN since this Mideast peace deal has come about than probably in any recent time. | ||
| A guy that can bring peace to the Middle East the way Don Trump has, can close the border in days the way Don Trump has, can pretty well do anything. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I believe that the Democrats would come over and help us work out something with the health care system. | |
| It is broken. | ||
| It's tragic. | ||
| And people that need it, and I'm a conservative, but I do believe that the government has a responsibility to help people that can't help themselves, especially where health care is concerned. | ||
| But what happens? | ||
| What happens is the same thing with Obamacare. | ||
| When Obamacare was instituted, a lady that I work with was paying $300 a month for her health care and taking care of a disabled husband. | ||
| When Obamacare came into being, her premiums went to $700 a month. | ||
| Her deductible went to $5,000 a month, or $5,000 a year, I'm sorry. | ||
| And she just as well not had any health care. | ||
| Many, many people have been victimized by Obamacare. | ||
| The people that get the subsidies, yeah, that's fine. | ||
| But they were being taken care of before through Medicaid. | ||
| And I do wonder, you mentioned abuse of Trump's powers, abuse of Trump's powers. | ||
| Trump wants these inner city young people to quit killing each other, mostly black. | ||
| Okay, you put a lot out for the call for a guest, so we'll let him respond to that. | ||
| Yeah, appreciate that. | ||
| And appreciate the caller's questions. | ||
| I understand that the premise there disagrees with maybe our worldview and our members' worldview, but I think it's great that he's engaged. | ||
| And I would just say a couple of things. | ||
| There's some nodes of agreement that we have there. | ||
| He talked about being able to get people in a room and to resolve something. | ||
| I think the Democrats would love if Donald Trump would take that attitude to sit down, to invite Leader Schumer, invite Leader Jeffries in, to come up with a fix to make sure that health care prices and premiums don't spike. | ||
| I think where the caller and I diverge a bit is who has the responsibility. | ||
| I mean, Donald Trump has sold us a bill of goods and has said he is the most powerful president. | ||
| He is all-powerful. | ||
| He can go and do amazing things around the world. | ||
| He can go and help broker a deal in the Middle East. | ||
| If he can do that, why can't he sit down with leaders of Congress and come up with a common sense agreement that can make sure that the American people don't suffer higher health care costs? | ||
| That seems like a reasonable ask for President Trump. | ||
| So I appreciate the caller, appreciate all of their concerns, and would encourage them to stay engaged. | ||
| Your website has a map taking a look at at least pinpointing the locations of the No Kings rallies that are set through across the United States. | ||
| A lot of blue dots there. | ||
| What do you attribute that kind of participation to? | ||
| Well, one, and I appreciate you highlighting the map. | ||
| The thing that always jumps out to me about the map is, yeah, you're going to have big activations in big cities, in Washington, D.C., in the New Yorks, in the Chicago's, in the L.A.s. | ||
| What was so moving about what happened with No Kings in June is you had medium-sized, small cities, small communities, places whether it was Nampa, Idaho, Little Rock, Arkansas, small communities up the Florida panhandle, all through the community. |