| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
As we wait for the press briefing to start, we'll show an earlier discussion from our own Washington Journal. Yesterday, and this is what Punch Bowl News is saying this morning. | |
| It says inside the caucus, Senate Dems hold the line despite no exit strategy. | ||
| It says the Senate is scheduled to vote today on Senator Ron Johnson's of Wisconsin. | ||
| That's a Republican bill to pay accepted federal employees who've been forced to work without pay during the shutdown. | ||
| Democrats are likely to filibuster the measure, believing it gives President Donald Trump and OMB Director Russ Vote too much authority over who to pay or not to pay. | ||
| It says that's a tough vote for Senate Democrats. | ||
| The plan, the Democrats' plan, is to offer two bills of their own today from Senator Chris Van Holland of Maryland and Gary Peters of Michigan, both Democrats. | ||
| The Van Holland's bill would pay all federal employees throughout the shutdown and bar any more layoffs by OMB. | ||
| Peters' narrower proposal would pay all federal employees up through the day the bill is enacted. | ||
| And we'll take your calls now. | ||
| William in Ohio, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning, William. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| How are you today, Mimi? | ||
| Good. | ||
| Well, I got a few things to say. | ||
| Number one, I blame this shutdown on Donald Shorty Johnson Trump because it is all his fault. | ||
| And Mikey Little Johnson's going to do whatever he tells him to do because, number one, they don't want to open the Epstein files. | ||
| And number two, he can run riders like a drunk sailor with America's money during this whole time. | ||
| And I just got a feeling that they're going to shut it down as long as they can until they can just take the whole country over. | ||
| And, you know, Donald Trump is blaming this shutdown because of his dictatorial ways. | ||
| And we've got to get rid of that man. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Raymond in California, line for Democrats. | ||
| Good morning, Raymond. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hello, yes. | |
| I'm blaming this on the Democrats and the Republicans of the shutdown because they've been kicking the deficit down the road for 20 or 30 years. | ||
| We wouldn't have a shutdown under this or any of these problems if they would do their jobs. | ||
| And it's our fault because we keep electing the same people over and over and over again, and they don't do anything. | ||
| You know, nobody's right if everybody's wrong. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Bye. | ||
| John in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, Republican. | ||
| Good morning, John. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you for taking my call. | ||
| I'm wondering if there's any way that you could get your technicians to pull up the tape of the minority whip being interviewed by Fox News yesterday. | ||
| She actually admitted. | ||
| John, you still there? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, I'm still here. | |
| She actually admitted that the Democrats did shut the government down to use as leverage. | ||
| So now the debate's over. | ||
| We know who shut the government down. | ||
| It was the Democrats. | ||
| They admitted it. | ||
| All you have to do is pull up that tape and show it to everybody. | ||
| It's been on Fox News over and over again. | ||
| You're talking about Catherine Clark? | ||
| Is that the whip that you're talking about? | ||
| Okay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, ma'am. | |
| Yeah, she's clearly on the tape asked, you know, and she answers the question that we purposely shut down the government to have leverage. | ||
| Okay, well, we'll look for it, John. | ||
| And here is Scott in Arizona, Independent Line. | ||
| Scott, you're a retired federal worker. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That is correct. | |
| And thank you. | ||
| Hope everyone's having a great day. | ||
| Mimi, I'm going to preface this with a fable, one like ASOX fable. | ||
| You can look it up and it talks a lot about a fox and a lion. | ||
| And I retired from the military. | ||
| I was called up as a civil servant in 2012, which was back, the government was going through a shutdown in 2013, and that was affecting how I could come off active duty and return to my civil service job. | ||
| And I actually had to go into disability in 2013. | ||
| So that's an impact a lot of people don't see. | ||
| But back to Aesop's fable. | ||
| When we talk about the fox and the lion, the lion's the mightiest in the jungle, and he comes out and he comes up against the fox. | ||
| And the lion's used to everybody running away from him. | ||
| And the fox says, I'm better than you, lion. | ||
| And the lion says, prove it. | ||
| And the fox said, well, just follow me. | ||
| And the next 10 people that we meet, watch. | ||
| They're going to be afraid of me. | ||
| And so the lion follows the fox, and he notices that 10 people, 10 animals, move out the way of the fox. | ||
| Think about it. | ||
| They're not moving out the way of the fox. | ||
| They're moving out the way of the lion. | ||
| And then what does that mean, Scott? | ||
| Bringing us back to the shutdown. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| It means that in Aesop's fable, sometimes you have to be a fox. | ||
| Sometimes you have to be a lion. | ||
| The lion is mighty. | ||
| The fox is wittier, smart. | ||
| But in 1987, the Pentagon saved $3 billion by moving the military payday one day from September the 30th to October the 1st. | ||
| All right, Scott. | ||
| So going back to the previous caller about Catherine Clark, she's the minority whip. | ||
| This is the Washington Examiner. | ||
| It says, Republicans slam number two House Democrat for acknowledging the left's leverage point in the shutdown. | ||
| And we have for you that clip of the Democratic whip, House Democratic Whip, Catherine Clark, from yesterday on Fox News. | ||
| I mean, shutdowns are terrible. | ||
| And of course, there will be, you know, families that are going to suffer. | ||
| We take that responsibility very seriously. | ||
| But it is one of the few leverage times we have. | ||
| I mean. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Did we lose that? | |
| Okay. | ||
| Sorry. | ||
| That was it. | ||
| And we are taking your calls this first half hour on the government shutdown. | ||
| The numbers are on your screen. | ||
| We've got Republicans on 202-748-8001. | ||
| Democrats on 202-748-8000. | ||
| And Independents 202-748-8002. | ||
| Federal workers can call us on 202-748-8003. | ||
| And here's Dwayne in Jamaica, New York, Independent. | ||
| Good morning. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Mimi. | |
| It's frustrating each and every day when both parties are coming on television giving their little sermon on about the shutdown. | ||
| What they need to do is come together, sit in a room, and Donald Trump needs to either be a part of this negotiation or just let the minority and the majority leaders work this out. | ||
| I don't know why he's getting involved in this. | ||
| These guys are seasoned veterans. | ||
| They're seasoned politicians. | ||
| They can get us out of this jam. | ||
| It is frustrating for the workers. | ||
| It is frustrating for the citizens. | ||
| And I really truly believe election has consequences. | ||
| Remember, he only has three more years unless he decides he wants to run another four years. | ||
| So he needs to get out of the way and let these four seasoned veterans do their job. | ||
| Thank you, Mimi, and have a good morning. | ||
| Gerald in Cincinnati, Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Gerald. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, good morning, Mimi. | |
| Yeah, thing that I want to say is this has become a joke. | ||
| How can he have all the advance over the money? | ||
| And he practically stealing everything. | ||
| You know, he has made the East Wing to a ballroom. | ||
| And here, all the people in the United States is going through all these disasters. | ||
| It seems preposterous. | ||
| And I hope he gets what he's going to get. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Russ in San Antonio, Texas, a Republican. | ||
| Hi, Russ. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Fine. | |
| How are you doing? | ||
| Good. | ||
|
unidentified
|
My opinion is the Democrats don't want Americans to become prosperous. | |
| They want to give everything at the expense of the American worker. | ||
| And it's really, really sad. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Well, let's take a look at House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. | ||
| He spoke yesterday about the issues that the shutdown is causing Americans. | ||
| Donald Trump and Republicans promised to lower the cost of living on day one. | ||
| Costs aren't going down. | ||
| They're going up. | ||
| Electricity prices through the roof. | ||
| Housing costs up. | ||
| Grocery costs up. | ||
| Child care costs up. | ||
| And now Republicans refuse to do anything to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, which is going to result in tens of millions of people experiencing dramatically increased premiums, co-pays, and deductibles. | ||
| It's out of control. | ||
| It's a cost of living crisis and it's a health care crisis at the same time. | ||
| And yet, Republicans continue to ignore it, refuse to deal with it. | ||
| And on top of all of that, we're in a moment where millions of Americans are about to increase their experience with heightened food insecurity, with hunger, because of the one big ugly bill and the fact that Republicans enacted the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American history. | ||
| These are all quality of life issues that have to be dealt with right now. | ||
| And yet Republicans want to talk about process and their my way or the highway approach, their take it or leave it approach, which is what they've been visiting on the American people this entire year in terms of their extremism. | ||
| And it's all unacceptable. | ||
| Just come back to work. | ||
| Let's sit down. | ||
| Let's negotiate a bipartisan agreement. | ||
| Let's reopen the government. | ||
| Let's address the high cost of living in the United States of America. | ||
| Let's address the hunger that you're creating. | ||
| And of course, let's address the Republican health care crisis. | ||
| And let's go to Mo in Washington, D.C. Democrat. | ||
| Mo, you're a federal worker. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| And wow. | ||
| You know, I had a whole lot to say, but you know, I'm pretty much speechless. | ||
| You know, we've been going through not getting a deposit to pay our bills. | ||
| And What citizens don't understand is there are a lot of us who didn't save. | ||
| I saved for a rainy day, so I wasn't spending my money free. | ||
| But my daughter, she's in the Navy. | ||
| And I started getting a mail from her bank from her bank, like several letters from her bank had come in at one drop. | ||
| And I said, you know, I usually don't open her mail, but I opened her mail. | ||
| And it said, your account has insufficient funds. | ||
| Mind you, she's out of the country. | ||
| And I'm like, insufficient funds. | ||
| not even paying the military. | ||
| But Mo, they were supposed to be paid on the 15th. | ||
| Did your daughter not get that paycheck? | ||
|
unidentified
|
My daughter did not get her paycheck. | |
| She did not get any funds. | ||
| I had to deposit funds into her account to ensure that, you know, they got what was insufficient. | ||
| And I was saying to myself, why? | ||
| You know, it's not just about. | ||
| No, no, no. | ||
| She better check about that because they were supposed to have gotten their October 15th paycheck since she's in the military. | ||
| She did not. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Everything I love. | |
| My daughter did not get paid. | ||
| And what about you, Mo? | ||
| You said, are you also a federal worker? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I am a federal worker. | |
| And no, I haven't gotten paid, but I saved for a rainy day, and I have a cushion to survive. | ||
| And are you having to work or are you furloughed? | ||
| Can you tell us which agency or department? | ||
| I don't want to say? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, but I still get paid. | |
| And you mean you still have to work. | ||
| You're not getting paid. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I still have to work. | |
| As a matter of fact, I'm driving to work now. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| I'm driving to work now. | ||
| And I'm what you call an essential employee. | ||
| And so how are you feeling about this shutdown as far as do you think that they should just pass a clean CR? | ||
| Don't worry about the ACA health care premiums. | ||
| Just reopen the government. | ||
| Or do you say they should hold out even though you're working and not getting paid? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm a giver. | |
| I'm not a taker. | ||
| So I expect everyone in these United States to have some type of health care for themselves. | ||
| It is essential that we all have health care. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I also think that they should stand firm. | |
| Yes, God's children, we've always suffered, you know, but at the end of the road, there will be a shining blessing. | ||
| But I just want them to work together instead of trying to do tick for tack. | ||
| This is the United States of America, and we're supposed to be one. | ||
| And the bill should be bipartisan, not just one group once in control. | ||
| I mean, it's sickening to me to the point where I can't even communicate how I feel. | ||
| You know, we've got to stop this. | ||
| There are a lot of people who are hurting. | ||
| And then for a federal employee to have to go to the food bank? | ||
| But what do you mean you can't communicate how you feel? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's almost like I have so much emotion. | |
| Oh, I see. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I see. | |
| You're having a hard time getting it all out. | ||
| I get it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, it's so many emotions that's going all over the place. | |
| And I just hope God just shine a light on us and just try and make sense of it all. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Well, let's talk to Betty on the Republican line in South Carolina. | ||
| Hi, Betty. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Donald Trump ain't the one that shut the governor down. | ||
| It's the Democrat. | ||
| All these people that is, and I know they had to see what I've seen. | ||
| And that Jeffrey and Chuck Schuber, they are the main ones that's not open up the government. | ||
| And, you know, just like they ain't going to do nothing till they pass what they want. | ||
| And when they do, the illegals is the ones, the American people, they going to give to the illegals, and you forget about the American people. | ||
| I mean, I see that already. | ||
| And everybody that comes on there, what if this were you that hate, God said love everybody. | ||
| I don't hate Donald Trump, and I don't hate the Democrats. | ||
| I have wanted to say that word, but I hear something has said you're supposed to love everybody. | ||
| And that's God telling me that. | ||
| So I won't say I hate them on account of that. | ||
| So anyhow, just like they treating Donald Trump, the man I think is doing a good job. | ||
| And he done a good job the first time. | ||
| And like I said, the illegals where we at, and you talk about when you go shopping, sometimes you can't get nothing because their buggy is filled up to the top. | ||
| And you can't take your money with you. | ||
| All right, buddy. | ||
| And this is Jimmy on the line for Democrats, Maryville, Tennessee. | ||
| Good morning, Jimmy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, Mimi. | |
| I've got a couple of things that I want to talk about. | ||
| Number one, the main reason why the government is shut down right now is because the Democrats is fighting for your health care. | ||
| And we, back when the beautiful bill was passed, a lot of people doesn't realize this, and you can check this out for yourself. | ||
| The Republican states that voted for Donald Trump is getting hit hard. | ||
| The poverty rate in those states is higher than it is in the Democratic states. | ||
| So the ACA premiums will hurt people in the Republican states more than they will in Democratic states. | ||
| Second of all, Donald Trump has lost control completely. | ||
| There's nobody in Washington now that can control him. | ||
| He can do exactly what he wants. | ||
| Supreme Court won't do nothing or nothing like that. | ||
| That's why the midterm elections this next year is going to be very important to the American people. | ||
| People need to go out and vote, vote Democrat, because we are the only ones that can stop him in his tracks next year when we get control of Congress. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And this is what the New York Times says. | ||
| This is an analysis that says, as shutdown drags and Trump flexes, Congress cedes its relevance. | ||
| Quote, it's like we have given up, one Republican lawmaker said. | ||
| It starts this way. | ||
| By almost any measure, Congress is failing and flailing. | ||
| Government shutdown for 22nd day, many federal workers not being paid. | ||
| Congressional staff members have begun referring to themselves as volunteers. | ||
| That reminder that congressional staff are working but not paid. | ||
| The members are getting paid. | ||
| It says the House has quite literally ground to a halt. | ||
| Chamber has not voted since September 19th. | ||
| And Speaker Mike Johnson refuses to call members back, preventing them from doing any legislative work. | ||
| He has refused to seat a new duly elected Democratic member from Arizona one month after her victory, though he encouraged her to return home and work for constituents. | ||
| She does not yet officially represent because he won't administer her the oath of office. | ||
| As the Trump administration shifts billions of dollars around to take care of its priorities during the shutdown with scant input from lawmakers, ignoring Congress's clear constitutional supremacy over the power of the purse, Republicans in control have done nothing to push back. | ||
| Wonder what you think of that. | ||
| We'll talk to Jim in Washington, D.C., Republican. | ||
| Hi, Jim. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, good morning. | |
| And I'm a Republican, but I think that both parties are at fault. | ||
| I think what we need in the situation is transparency. | ||
| I mean, every day the Democrats come on and say, we're fighting for the health care. | ||
| And then the Republicans say, oh, no, what you want to do is give the health care to the illegals. | ||
| And then the Democrats say, all you want to do is to protect the rich. | ||
| And so we really don't know who's telling the truth and who isn't. | ||
| And we need to know what is going on in terms of what each party wants. | ||
| And the Republicans have a clean bill, but yet the Democrats have put a lot of things in there. | ||
| So if they really just want health care, they should try to just go for that. | ||
| And the thing is that the issue with the health care, where the rates are going to go up a lot, they keep saying that, is really important. | ||
| So I think that's an issue that should be taken up by the Republicans. | ||
| They keep trying to dodge that, and they don't want it to take the health care issue. | ||
| So I think basically both parties need to be transparent and let us know who is telling the truth and who's not. | ||
| So Jim, here's my question for you. | ||
| Have you done any of your own research on that question? | ||
| Because, you know, as you said, the Democrats are saying we're not giving health care, government health care, to illegal immigrants. | ||
| Republicans are saying that's what they're trying to do. | ||
| They're trying to give health care to illegal immigrants. | ||
| So what have you done? | ||
| Have you done any research on that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's a great question. | |
| Honestly, I haven't. | ||
| But, you know, and other things in terms of like they're saying that the Democrats want to do give a lot of money to overseas and to like programs for operations for the trans and all that. | ||
| And, you know, what is the truth? | ||
| Who is telling the truth in terms of what is in the bills? | ||
| And you're right. | ||
| I haven't done that, so I should do that. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And this is Ron in Amsterdam, New York. | ||
| Democrat. | ||
| Good morning, Ron. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Chief, I just got a couple things to say. | ||
| First of all, the Senate has a 60-vote rule, and that's the forcing compromise. | ||
| Where are the Republicans when it comes to the compromise? | ||
| You know, you can check that out. | ||
| And another thing here, I think one of the most un-American things that's going on in this country right now is not seating that congresswoman from Arizona. | ||
| That's not right. | ||
| That's un-American. | ||
| She should be seated as quickly as they can. | ||
| Most people aren't being represented. | ||
| I'm a little nervous, but that's all I've got to say. | ||
| All right, Ron. | ||
| And the Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins visited a VA medical center in Washington, D.C. yesterday, and he spoke about the effects of the government shutdown. | ||
| So, look, VHA, let me just assure everybody here: healthcare system is working. | ||
| We have pre-approved funds. | ||
| We go into an advanced funding appropriation. | ||
| So, nobody should be, no matter what you read or what you hear, if you need health care at the VA, the VA here, especially in Washington and all over the country, are actually operating. | ||
| Our clinics are operating. | ||
| They're going through exactly what they've been doing all along. | ||
| And by the way, I just have to say they're doing it better, faster, and quicker in more quality than we've seen in years. | ||
| And I think that's the testament to the doctors and nurses, the administrators saying, hey, for the first time, we can make changes that actually help our veterans. | ||
| I received a call just the other day from a doctor out in Colorado who called me up because I had talked to him because he'd give some good care. | ||
| And I just picked up the phone one day in the airport and called him and said, Hey, I heard about what you did. | ||
| And he began to talk. | ||
| Well, he checked me out, which is I'm glad he did. | ||
| He said, I saw you on Sean Ryan podcast. | ||
| I saw you in these others. | ||
| He said, I believe in what you're talking about. | ||
| He said, I want to talk to you about how I can help my patients. | ||
| So I had a good conversation with him, and he was able to give us some stuff that is going to help us with patients. | ||
| That's what this is all about. | ||
| That's why we do what we do. | ||
| And so as we continue on to look at this functionality in VHA, I'm very proud of HA. | ||
| Now, how does that affect the rest? | ||
| Well, in VBA, we're all mostly on furlough. | ||
| That means our disabilities payments are still being made. | ||
| Please don't worry about your disability benefiting. | ||
| We're all processing them, but I'm having them processed by people who are not getting paid. | ||
| This is not right. | ||
| It shouldn't happen. | ||
| We need to fix that. | ||
| Here's Robert Waldorf, Maryland, Independent Line. | ||
| Good morning, Robert. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning, ma'am. | |
| I think the one thing that this has proven with the government being shut down, that all the government employees that have been furloughed are basically of no use to the federal government. | ||
| My life hasn't changed. | ||
| I'm not worse off for it. | ||
| Life goes on. | ||
| Everything's great out here. | ||
| You know, the lights are on and everything's working. | ||
| So it goes to prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that the government is bloated. | ||
| It's got too many people in it. | ||
| This shows where the cut can be made. | ||
| If you're not essential and you are not on the job right now, you should be permanently laid off. | ||
| And you can cut the budget massively by doing this. | ||
| This proves it beyond a doubt. | ||
| Now, secondly, I'd like to point out, everybody's talking about how the electric rates are going up. | ||
| Well, that is going up because of the Democrats. | ||
| In the state of Maryland, we have closed three power plants, Dickerson, Chalk Point, and Morgantown. | ||
| They are closed down. | ||
| This has cut down the megawatts on the JPM. | ||
| That's where your electricity comes to you, people. | ||
| This has cut that down. | ||
| They're not producing electricity. | ||
| So this is why electricity is more valuable now and costs you more. | ||
| The Democrats put in all these different environmental, environmental things so that they couldn't, you know, we can't burn coal. | ||
| We can't do this. | ||
| But if you look at the reason why in the state of Maryland or even New Jersey or Virginia, the reason your electric rates are going up, they've shut down the power plants. | ||
| So don't let them sit here and complain about the power and how the rates of electricity have gone up. | ||
| They're the ones that caused all that. | ||
| And, you know, the second thing with this government shutdown, the only thing that I have noticed, Mimi, is the damn golf courses are just full of bureaucrats. | ||
| Now, you can't get a morning tea time. | ||
| Have a good day, America. | ||
| Here's Matt in Mart, Texas, on the line for Republicans. | ||
| Good morning, Matt. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, ma'am. | |
| So first, I'd like to say, Mimi, a few calls ago, you were right. | ||
| The troops did get paid. | ||
| Donald Trump realigned some money, I think, his research and development, and he paid the troops. | ||
| And he's going to bust his tail to keep the troops paid and keep the government open. | ||
| But they've done had, what, 12 or, but you were right, Will Go. | ||
| The troops did get paid to 15. | ||
| And the woman was just sitting there. | ||
| She's in the Democratic Party. | ||
| He's, you know, in my opinion, there ain't no Democratic Party. | ||
| It's not like it was with Harry, the great Harry Truman and JFK, the good Democrats. | ||
| They've done turned into communists. | ||
| That's what they are. | ||
| But they've done had 12 or 13 votes. | ||
| And every time the Democrats vote to keep the government shut down, every single time. | ||
| And they're going to have another vote probably today and the vote, and the Democrats will vote again, communists, to keep the government shut down and not pay the troops. | ||
| Now, I don't know how many times Donald Trump diverted money from research and development and paid them this last time. | ||
| I don't know how many times he can keep doing that. | ||
| Eventually, he'll, you know, I don't know. | ||
| I guess he can keep doing it as much as he can and fight for the troops. | ||
| But God bless him. | ||
| He's doing a great job. | ||
| If there was an election today, he'd win by even more than he did November the 5th. | ||
| Got it, Matt. | ||
| And this is USA Today, if you recall, Democrat Jeff Merkley, the senator from Oregon. | ||
| It says that he broke state record with a 22-hour Senate speech to protest Trump. | ||
| It says that the Democrat held the floor for over 22 hours, a new record for the longest floor speech given by an Oregon senator. | ||
| However, he did not surpass the record of his colleague, Senator Corey Booker. | ||
| That was 24 hours and 18 minutes. | ||
| Sorry, that was 25 hours that broke the previous record. | ||
| And here is a portion of his concluding remarks from yesterday. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And we have to recognize that the next election is absolutely critical if we're going to save our republic because the strategy of an authoritarian is to rig the elections. | |
| And the more time they have, the more entrenched it becomes. | ||
| And already, here is Trump trying to do a national voter registration file that can be more easily manipulated for the elections next year. | ||
| Here is President Trump trying to do massive gerrymandering in a whole bunch of states in order to offset the balance between Democrats and Republicans that are fairly represented in the House of Representatives. | ||
| Here is President Trump saying he'll do everything possible to stop the use of vote by mail across the country because we know why. | ||
| Because vote by mail has such integrity. | ||
| It can't be manipulated on Election Day like the precincts can. | ||
| In precincts, you can move their location. | ||
| You can put them where there's no parking. | ||
| You can understaff them. | ||
| The machines can break down. | ||
| You can send intimidators. | ||
| You can proceed to put out fake information about their location. | ||
| You can put out information. | ||
| The election was last week when it's really this coming Tuesday. | ||
| Can't do that with vote by mail. | ||
| And when we have the majority, we must pass the for the people freedom to vote bill and lock down the integrity of our elections so we will not worry for a generation about the people having a fair voice in our government by and for the people. | ||
| I'm proud to be colleagues with all of you in this effort. | ||
| Thank you very much, and I yield the floor. | ||
| That was Senator Jeff Merkley yesterday of Oregon, a Democrat. | ||
| We are in open forum now. | ||
| Welcome back to Washington Journal. | ||
| It's open forum. | ||
| We'll go straight to your calls. | ||
| And this is Joanne in Perry, Georgia. | ||
| Democrat. | ||
| Hi, Joanne. | ||
|
unidentified
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Hi, thank you for taking my call. | |
| I just have two points and then a suggestion. | ||
| Not only do immigrants get free care at hospitals, it is also for disadvantaged white and black people. | ||
| Stopping pay of congressmen won't hurt them because they are wealthy from lobbyists and the stock market. | ||
| My suggestion is that to take a break in the shutdown is for Americans to stop shopping for anything but gas, groceries, and medication. | ||
| That will put pressure on corporations, Trump, and the Republicans to open the government and work out a solution. | ||
| I hope someone will organize this. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Here's Tony in Sugarland, Texas, Independent. | ||
| You're on the air. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, ma'am. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| First of all, for all the veterans out there, active duty people and first responders, thank you for your service. | ||
| Mimi, I haven't called in in 13 months. | ||
| So just bear with me. | ||
| I got some facts. | ||
| I do my research. | ||
| And I feel the fact that since y'all hired Mr. Feis from CNN. | ||
| I apologize for my tardiness today, so let's get right to it. |