| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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unidentified
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What's the Declaration's influence on a key moment from America's 250-year history? | |
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| We are back this morning on the Washington Journal. | ||
| It's day 30 of the government shutdown. | ||
| We're an open forum for the remainder of today's program. | ||
| We're talking to members of Congress from both sides of the aisle this morning while we continue to take your phone calls. | ||
| Joining us is Congressman Tim Burchett, Republican of Tennessee. | ||
| Congressman, let's begin with day 30. | ||
| What are your expectations of where this is headed as we approach the longest shutdown in U.S. history, which was 35 days? | ||
| I have very low expectations, ma'am. | ||
| The House, as I did, voted to keep the government open. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We voted for SNAP funding. | |
| We voted for WIC, women with infant children, SNAP, of course, is food stamps. | ||
| And now, of course, it's in the Senate and the Senate is doing, and the Senate Democrats are doing what the Senate Democrats do. | ||
| You know, Senator Schumer said, you know, every day gets better for us. | ||
| I'm not really sure who it's getting better for. | ||
| It's sure as heck it is getting better for women with infant children or over 40 million people. | ||
|
unidentified
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I don't think people understand the depth of 40 million people. | |
| The state of Tennessee just has 8 million people in it. | ||
| So we're talking about five times the volume, the numbers, over five times the volume of the state of Tennessee of people that could potentially go hungry. | ||
| I'm more worried about the children, and that is, you know, everybody wants to rail on the fraud and abuse in there, and there is plenty, I'm sure. | ||
|
unidentified
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But the children are the one that are going to suffer. | |
| And it's clearly in the hands of the Democrats. | ||
| We've got 50 votes in the, you have to, we have 53 votes in the Senate, and you need 60 for a bill of this complexity because of Senate rules. | ||
| And so it's clearly in the lap of Chuck Schumer. | ||
| Well, the Democrats would respond, Congressman, to say, yeah, you need our votes. | ||
| So you should be negotiating with us. | ||
| And we are saying in order to vote for a continuing resolution to keep the government funding, you need to negotiate with us on health care. | ||
| Well, this bill is not the apparatus to do that. | ||
| In the past, the Democrats have voted 13 times, 13 times to vote for a claimed CR. | ||
| And the only difference now is Donald Trump's in the White House, ma'am. | ||
| This has nothing to do with healthcare. | ||
|
unidentified
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It has completely to do with control. | |
| Chuck Schumer hears footsteps in the background, and those footsteps are Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. | ||
| He knows he's got to appeal to that far-left base, which is taking over New York, which we will, which they will probably elect a communist anti-Semitic man for, in my opinion, as the mayor of New York. | ||
| And he sees that as his base, and he doesn't have that base. | ||
| Chuck Schumer is a liberal, but he's not a communist or a Marxist at that. | ||
| And so he sees that base and he sees his power slipping through his fingers and he knows that and he's got to appease that group and he's doing a very poor job of it. | ||
| On food stamps, this Saturday, funding will run out for that program. | ||
| 42 million Americans impacted. | ||
| According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, over 55,000 people in your district rely on snap food benefits. | ||
| Should the president fund these benefits? | ||
| Find a way to do it out of the White House rather than a piece of legislation to pass this. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, there is legislation. | |
| I always think legislatively is the best process. | ||
| As you know, the Democrats fought the president when he found outside funding to fund our military, which is incredibly important. | ||
| And they fought him on that. | ||
| So I don't know what's different, ma'am. | ||
|
unidentified
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It's the same thing. | |
| All the Democrats have to do is come to the table and vote to open the government, just as I did, just as they've done 13 times in the past. | ||
| Now if you include the House and the Senate votes, they voted 13 times now to shut the government down. | ||
| What's different now? | ||
| Donald Trump's in the White House and Chuck Schumer sees his power slipping through his fingers. | ||
| The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, yesterday did say that if the Republican leader in the Senate, John Thune, put on the floor a bill by Senator Josh Hawley, a Republican, that would fund SNAP benefits. | ||
| He said himself and other Democrats would vote for it. | ||
| So should that vote take place and should the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, bring you all back to vote on that piece of legislation? | ||
| Well, that's totally up to the speaker, ma'am, but the bill's already there. | ||
| All they have to do is vote to open the government. | ||
| Even negotiating health care, President Trump said, if you open the government, I'll negotiate with you. | ||
| That's already on the table. | ||
| The only thing different, again, Donald Trump's in the White House and Chuck Schumer is losing control. | ||
| And the Democrats don't have the, you know, in the past, ma'am, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, the cluckheads over at the View, they would all just regurgitate whatever Schumer said. | ||
| Now you have folks on the internet, these podcasters, the Benny Show, you just name it, on down the line. | ||
| They know what's going on. | ||
| They've read page 57 of Chuck Schumer's bill that provides health care for illegals. | ||
| The game is up and America knows it. | ||
| And the major media knows it as well. | ||
| And the Democrats are having diminishing returns. | ||
| Everywhere I go in the state of Tennessee, people keep saying the same thing. | ||
| Stay the course. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Stay the course. | |
| All the Democrats have to do is vote yes. | ||
| I voted yes to open the government. | ||
| I voted to fund it. | ||
| Every Democrat in the House except for one voted to take SNAP benefits and to take WI benefits away. | ||
|
unidentified
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Every single one of them. | |
| And they can't run from that. | ||
| The bill is already passed to negotiate, ma'am. | ||
|
unidentified
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Those days are gone. | |
| They need to come back to the table and vote yes in the Senate. | ||
| They need to get some guts. | ||
| They need to get out from behind Chuck Schumer's skirt and vote to open the government. | ||
|
unidentified
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That's the only thing that's going to happen. | |
| Congressman, before we let you go, want to talk about the Epstein files. | ||
| You signed a discharge petition to force a vote on releasing the files. | ||
| Ma'am, I'm having trouble hearing you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Can you speak up, please? | |
| Yes. | ||
| Last question to you, Congressman, is about the Epstein files. | ||
| What is your expectation when the House does come back on a vote to release the files? | ||
| I predict we'll vote to open it. | ||
| That's what we'll do. | ||
| We'll pass that bill and we'll open the files. | ||
| I think the one thing we have to be careful about is when I asked in a closed door meeting of one of the ladies, she said she wanted to read the files, see what was in the files. | ||
|
unidentified
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So she knew what happened to her. | |
| She had blacked out during the whole thing. | ||
| And so I said, so you want the files open? | ||
| And she said, no, I do not. | ||
| I don't want them open to the public. | ||
|
unidentified
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I don't want to see what people see what they did to me. | |
| So there's several ladies there, and there's innocent people that probably traveled on that dirtbag Epstein's plane. | ||
|
unidentified
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Look, I don't care. | |
| I'd send them all to hell if it's my choice. | ||
|
unidentified
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I passed some of the toughest laws in Tennessee dealing that pass the death penalty. | |
| It was ruled unconstitutional at the time, and now it's been ruled constitutional. | ||
|
unidentified
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So I have no love for those people, but we have to protect the innocent. | |
| And I think that we will if we follow the proper procedure. | ||
| But I'll vote to open the files, ma'am. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Congressman Tim Burchett, thank you very much for your time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, ma'am. | |
| And at that point, we're going to go back up to Capitol Hill. | ||
| Congressman Paul Tonko, Democrat of New York, is joining us, member of the budget committee, joining us on day 30 of the government shutdown. | ||
| Congressman, is there an end in sight? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, good morning, Greta, and it's good to join you. | |
| I think there will be an end in sight. |