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Government Shutdown Threats
00:15:35
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unidentified
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Declaration of Independence. | |
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| Welcome to Ceasefire, where we seek to bridge the divide in American politics. | ||
| I'm Dasha Burns, Politico White House Bureau Chief. | ||
| Joining me now from either side of the aisle, two guests who have agreed to keep the conversation civil, even when they disagree. | ||
| Former Alabama Democratic Senator Doug Jones and former Ohio Republican Congressman Steve Stivers. | ||
| Thank you both so much for joining me. | ||
| We are finally, finally, my goodness, at the end of this longest government shutdown in history. | ||
| Now, you both were serving during the 2018-2019 shutdown, which lasted 35 days previously holding that record. | ||
| How does this one compare? | ||
| We'll start with you, Doug. | ||
| You know, I think there's a whole lot of difference in this. | ||
| And if I recall correctly, in the 2018-2019, it was over really some immigration issues and building a wall. | ||
| In my time there, I tried to find every way possible to vote. | ||
| And I think I was really one of the few, if only, senators to vote to reopen the government every time. | ||
| We've got 45,000, 50,000 federal workers in Alabama. | ||
| We've got 750,000 SNAP beneficiaries in Alabama. | ||
| And it was really important. | ||
| And I just didn't feel like that immigration issues was a hill for me to die on. | ||
| That said, I think this time Democrats really felt strongly about these ACA subsidies. | ||
| I supported what they were doing. | ||
| And at the end of the day, they had to give on that somewhat because it became pretty clear that neither the president nor Republicans in Congress were going to give. | ||
| So I think the issues are a lot of the same. | ||
| But you know what? | ||
| Nobody wins in these things. | ||
| I'm in that camp where nobody wins a shutdown. | ||
| And there's a lot of pain, regardless of the issues. | ||
| There's a lot of pain that gets inflicted after a few days. | ||
| Yeah, Steve, do you think there was a winner here? | ||
| Was there a winner back in 2018? | ||
| There's never a winner in a government shutdown. | ||
| I agree with Senator Jones. | ||
| And I was part of two government shutdowns, one in 11, one in 18. | ||
| And I continually voted at that time to reopen the government at every opportunity because I don't think you should shut down the government over a policy difference. | ||
| And frankly, that's what happened here just like in 18. | ||
| It was a policy difference that one party or the other used to shut down the government. | ||
| And I just don't think that's appropriate to make people suffer. | ||
| This time, SNAP benefits, I think, were the factor that brought people together as we realized that, you know, A bunch of our American people, 42 million people, were going to lose food assistance and they might go hungry. | ||
| That was enough to bring people together to realize that a temporary policy difference, while people might be passionate on either side of it, we shouldn't shut down the government, make families and businesses suffer as a result of a policy difference that can ultimately be worked out through the system. | ||
| Doug, you know, the theory for Democrats this time around was that their base really wanted them to show some fight, wanted to see them stand up to the Trump administration as part of the reason that they held out for so long. | ||
| In fact, the wins that they saw in last week's election was part of the reason why they wanted to keep it going, why some were so frustrated when those eight Democrats decided to vote with Republicans in the Senate. | ||
| But do you think at the end of the day that this shutdown fight was worth it for Democrats? | ||
| Was it the right fight to pick to show how they're standing up to Trump? | ||
| Oh, I absolutely do, but I disagree with you that the only reason they disagree that the only reason Democrats did that was just to stand up to Trump. | ||
| I just don't believe that. | ||
| I think that they truly believed there were going to be millions and millions of people in this country that suffer because of taking away those ACA subsidies. | ||
| And they wanted to fight for those people, not just against Trump. | ||
| Now, there are those that like to just fight against Trump, but I do think it was worth it. | ||
| At the end of the day, they finally realized that there was not going to be, that was not a negotiating point, that Republicans were not going to do it. | ||
| And so they had to do something to gain whatever they could to get the government back open. | ||
| But it was those ACA subsidies and the people that were going to suffer that was the real reason behind the Democrats not opening this right off the bat with the promises that they felt like were empty promises. | ||
| Yeah, and to be clear, I'm not saying that was the only reason, but it was, you know, fighting for those health care benefits, showing that they have the stomach to do it, was a big part of the Democrat theory of the case. | ||
| Steve, do you agree with the Republican leader's approach on this, particularly House Speaker Mike Johnson, keeping the House out of session? | ||
| Folks are home in their districts. | ||
| They were not here in D.C., you know, trying to work it out. | ||
| Was that the right call? | ||
| Well, the problem wasn't in the House. | ||
| The problem was in the Senate. | ||
| The House is a majority rules institution. | ||
| They passed a budget. | ||
| Actually, I think one Democrat voted for it, so it was actually bipartisan. | ||
| And then they went home because they'd done their work. | ||
| The fight was in the Senate trying to get to 60 votes, the way our system works. | ||
| And I will tell you the reason that I believe it's never worth it to shut down the government over a policy difference is I fully expect if the shutdown would have gone on another week, that the nuclear option would have gotten a ton of traction and might have actually happened to take away the filibuster from the budget process. | ||
| And I generally think that's a bad idea for the country. | ||
| The Senate, even though it gets me frustrated in serving in the House, is supposed to be the saucer that cools the emotions. | ||
| And so the filibuster rule, I think, is good for America. | ||
| It does give the minority some power. | ||
| And this minority used that power to shut down the government for 40-some days. | ||
| And I think that was inappropriate, but I don't want to take away the filibuster over it. | ||
| And I think that's what would have happened if they would have continued on with these demands. | ||
| And I don't think that's good for America. | ||
| Every time the filibuster gets removed, it was removed from the confirmation process a few years ago over judges. | ||
| It never comes back. | ||
| So I do think it's never a temporary measure. | ||
| And I don't want to see that go away. | ||
| That was the next shoe that was going to drop. | ||
| And then the Senate would become just like the House. | ||
| And I think even Senator Jones would recognize that's a bad idea. | ||
| Yeah, Doug, what do you think about that? | ||
| Oh, I totally agree. | ||
| And I do believe, like Steve, that that was a big part of why a number of the senators went along with this right now. | ||
| I think there were actually probably more senators that were ready because I also believe the snap benefits that the administration was withholding and basically threatening some states. | ||
| I do think the air traffic controllers and all of the federal workers that were not receiving benefits, I think all of that came into play, but I certainly believe they were looking down the road when there was no negotiation on the ACH subsidies and they were threatening to do away with a filibuster. | ||
| That had to be on their minds. | ||
| I don't think it was a coincidence, quite frankly, that there was the exact number of Democrats and then one Independent that was waiting in order to break the filibuster. | ||
| I don't think that was a coincidence. | ||
| I really do believe there were other Democratic senators that were ready to give. | ||
| Stevie. | ||
| I agree with Senator Jones on that 100%. | ||
| I agree with the senator. | ||
| I think there would have been more senators that would jump on. | ||
| I do disagree that any policy difference is worth it to shut down the government and make millions of people suffer. | ||
| It's just not why we were sent there to serve to make people suffer. | ||
| And, you know, both sides have legitimate points on the ACA argument. | ||
| You know, Democrats will argue it'll make insurance more affordable for people and has. | ||
| Republicans will argue it was done during COVID. | ||
| It was supposed to be temporary. | ||
| And, you know, I think Ronald Reagan said nothing has eternal life like a government program. | ||
| And this is another example of that where you just can't get rid of something that was supposed to be temporary. | ||
| And the Republicans are trying to, you know, be as fiscally responsible as they can and say, gee, there's still a lot of subsidy in the ACA, and this just takes away the extra subsidy. | ||
| It doesn't remove all subsidies. | ||
| This has to be. | ||
| So it's just going back to pre-COVID levels. | ||
| This has created some conflict among Democrats, Senator Jones. | ||
| There's a lot of frustration with the eight Democrats who voted with Republicans to reopen the government. | ||
| The rest of the Senate Dems, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, voted no. | ||
| Have you ever broken with your party, Senator? | ||
| And what's that experience like? | ||
|
unidentified
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Oh, sure. | |
| I mean, I did that a number of times when I was in the Senate, including on reopening the government. | ||
| I broke with them on several times, broke with them on several judicial nominations, things like that. | ||
| So you've been in the shoes of these eight Democrats. | ||
| What's your advice to them right now? | ||
|
unidentified
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Sure. | |
| Well, you know, look, let's just be candid. | ||
| I was a little bit in a different position. | ||
| I was given a lot more runway as a Democrat from a red state like Alabama. | ||
| I was given a lot of runway with Senator Schumer and the party. | ||
| But I do believe that, you know, folks are going to criticize these eight senators. | ||
| But ultimately, they've brought this to the attention of the American people. | ||
| They brought it to the attention of so many folks. | ||
| And this is going to, there will be a vote one way or another. | ||
| You know, one of the things, and I think this caused a problem, is that the biggest deficit we've got in Capitol Hill right now is one of trust. | ||
| And Democrats just didn't trust Republicans. | ||
| Republicans don't trust Democrats. | ||
| And I think that that's why they held out for as long as they did. | ||
| But ultimately, I think these eight senators did what they believe to be best in the best interest of their constituents and in the country. | ||
| And I don't think anybody should criticize that. | ||
| I know Democrats are angry right now, but we've got to play where we are. | ||
| And I think as we go forward, Democrats will see that these issues are still going to be front and center. | ||
| They're still going to be very, very difficult. | ||
| But they're going to be put on point and they're going to be put to a vote. | ||
| And it's going to be sometimes it's going to be the Republicans that are going to have to now make an affirmative call about whether or not they want to do anything on these subsidies, even if it's just extending them for another year. | ||
| And then, if that happens and it passes, then Speaker Johnson's going to have to decide, is he going to bring that to the floor of the House of Representatives? | ||
| We'll see. | ||
| There's a lot to play out in the aftermath of this shutdown. | ||
| Congressman, how should Republicans handle this ACA subsidy issue? | ||
| Because there are a lot of folks in competitive districts right now, Republicans, that are worried this is going to be pretty bad for them, for their constituents, their voters. | ||
| I think it's worth having a conversation about is there a, again, if you're going to do an extension, make it a temporary extension, not making it permanent. | ||
| The goal among Democrats, the stated goal was to make these subsidies permanent. | ||
| It's certainly an open conversation as to whether you can do something. | ||
| I think most Republicans would prefer to let them expire and move forward from there. | ||
| And I think that's a needle they can thread. | ||
| They'll figure it out and do the best they can. | ||
| It's a legitimate policy discussion to have a conversation about, but so is our giant national debt and deficit. | ||
| And we've got to start making choices that move us forward in lots of different ways. | ||
| And Republicans need to be willing to cut things that are Republican programs too. | ||
| So there needs to be a bigger conversation here because the number one rule when you find yourself in a hole should be stop digging. | ||
| But we can't seem to figure that out in Congress. | ||
| And I agree with Senator Jones, by the way. | ||
| I broke with my party a bunch of times in the House. | ||
| That's less ordinary in the House. | ||
| I remember doing it on the discharge petition for the Export-Import Bank. | ||
| I remember doing it on immigration reform. | ||
| I remember doing it on making sure that we kept the government open. | ||
| And my advice to those eight Democrats is that America needs patriots and not partisans right now. | ||
| And, you know, do the best you can. | ||
| I do want to ask about the backlash that Chuck Schumer is facing over this. | ||
| I mean, despite most Democrats siding with the effort to continue fighting, and he voted no with those Democrats, he wasn't able to sort of lead the caucus in the direction that the majority wanted. | ||
| He's been drawing ire from progressive Democrats like Congressman Roe Khan. | ||
| I want you to take a listen to what he had to say. | ||
|
unidentified
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How much of this do you put at the feet of Charles Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate? | |
| Most of it. | ||
| I mean, he's the leader of the Senate. | ||
| This deal would never have happened if he had not blessed it. | ||
| Don't take my word for it. | ||
| Take the word of other senators who are saying that they kept Senator Schumer in the loop the whole time. | ||
|
unidentified
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Look, I've worked with Senator Schumer. | |
| He did an incredible job on the chip seg, on the IRA, on infrastructure, but it's time for him to be replaced. | ||
| He is not meeting the moment. | ||
|
unidentified
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He's out of touch with where the party's base is. | |
| Senator, do you think he's right? | ||
| No, I think that that's going to be left for some people I have a lot of confidence in, and that's the rest of the United States Senate Democratic caucus. | ||
| They're the ones that are going to make that decision at some point. | ||
| The difference is that, you know, look, the old joke is that every senator works for themselves and their constituents, and every senator thinks they ought to be president. | ||
|
Mississippi Run: Voters Show
00:12:15
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| And so they're going to decide to do what they believe is in the best interest of their state and their constituents and the United States. | ||
| That is not always. | ||
| It's a big tent sometimes, even among those 40-something Democrats. | ||
| And you can't always hold everyone together. | ||
| I think it's a little bit different in the House because, one, you've got so many you've got to work on, and you can, even though there's no room for error now, there's still a lot of different dynamics there. | ||
| And again, I want to go back to this, and this is not Chuck Schumer's fault. | ||
| It is no fault of anyone's that there was a deal to open the government. | ||
| This was eight United States senators, likely with the backing of several more that did not need to come forward, that decided it was time to reopen the government and get the deal that they can, the best that they can. | ||
| In those circumstances, there is not a single leader that I think could have kept that together after 45 days. | ||
| No other Democratic or majority leader of either party has ever faced a shutdown for 45 days. | ||
| And that is a significant difference of where we are. | ||
| So I agree with Steve that these folks are patriots. | ||
| They'll get over this. | ||
| They're going to move on to the next fight, and they're going to fight for their constituency, and they continue to do the things that they believe right. | ||
| And Senator Schumer will continue, at least through this Congress, to be the majority leader. | ||
| I want to turn to the future for both of your parties. | ||
| We had a massive election off your election, but a pretty significant one in the messages, the narratives, and the storylines that we are taking out of that. | ||
| The party chair of the Democratic Party chair, Ken Martin, campaigned in a red district in Tennessee for congressional candidate Afton Bain. | ||
| In an interview with NBC News, Martin said that Bain has an excellent shot to win despite the district being solid red. | ||
| Doug, you have some familiarity with being a Democrat in a red state. | ||
| Do you think that the Democrats should be going into those kinds of districts, those kinds of places, and pushing to connect with voters in these areas? | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| There is no question about that. | ||
| I mean, I think that that is one of the problems that the party is suffering from right now. | ||
| The party abandoned the South, the party abandoned states in the Midwest. | ||
| And I think we've got to go back into that, and we've got to get credible candidates that if you get a credible candidate, that you can make that candidate competitive. | ||
| And we've got to start going into those areas. | ||
| And just look what happened last Tuesday. | ||
| In Georgia alone, you had two down ballot kind of races for Public Service Commission that flipped in which Democrats beat incumbents and beat them badly. | ||
| It wasn't a razor-thin margin. | ||
| They beat them badly. | ||
| And those states flipped the first statewide offices that Democrats have won in over 20 years. | ||
| In Mississippi, you had the legislature. | ||
| Three legislative seats flipped to Democrats. | ||
| Then there is no longer a supermajority in the Mississippi legislature. | ||
| When you go in there and you can talk about issues, you can make some headway. | ||
| And quite frankly, that's the way it should have been all of the time. | ||
| We shouldn't have all the gerrymandering and all of this stuff going on. | ||
| Everybody should be competing for the votes of their voters and their constituents and not just taking them all for granted. | ||
| So, yeah, let's come to the South. | ||
| Well, and Steve, I think, you know, President Trump actually kind of cracked the door open on this idea that you can reach voters in some unexpected places. | ||
| I mean, you see how well he did in places like New York City, in New Jersey, and even in California. | ||
| What do you think Republicans should take away from that? | ||
| And should other candidates besides Trump try their hand at connecting with voters in places that aren't deep red? | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| I think majority parties are not built in deep red or deep blue districts. | ||
| They're built in swing districts and districts that you can cross over that happen to be in the other party. | ||
| And that's how you build a majority. | ||
| That's how you keep a majority. | ||
| And, you know, it's important for Republicans that were in districts that Kamala Harris won to be talking to their voters. | ||
| There's a bunch of those folks. | ||
| There's also a bunch of folks that are Democrats in districts that Trump won, and Republicans need to go after those districts pretty hard, too. | ||
| So I think that's how you win majorities is by going after the swing districts and the other party's districts. | ||
| You don't win it focusing on just your base. | ||
| Yeah, Doug, this is new for Democrats, though, in this era of politics. | ||
| We didn't see that much happening. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Go ahead, Steve. | ||
| Democrats seem to be the coastal elites who only talk to each other. | ||
| So it's good to see them going to the South and other places. | ||
| And, you know, a two-party system strong for our country. | ||
| And, you know, people need to have options and choices. | ||
| Yeah, Doug, how should Democrats talk to voters in red states? | ||
| What is your advice? | ||
| It's really simple. | ||
| I mean, look, it's been fascinating to me to listen to all the Democrat pundits out there these days saying, oh, Democrats in 24, we didn't talk about the kitchen table issues. | ||
| We didn't talk about the facts and numbers behind the economy and that people were hurting and that they needed higher wages. | ||
| They needed to bring manufacturing in. | ||
| We needed health care for everyone that can afford it. | ||
| We need to get good, affordable health care for folks. | ||
| We got away from the very kitchen table issues that, quite frankly, won me the election in Alabama in 2017. | ||
| And now folks are beginning to see that those are the issues that resonate. | ||
| Yeah, I know that the cultural issues have always played a role, particularly in the South. | ||
| But at the end of the day, you know, it was funny that talking to people, I reminded folks that Tip O'Neill used to say all politics was local. | ||
| And that's still true, although there's some national politics in it. | ||
| But at the end of the day, all politics is personal. | ||
| And that's where I think that we can win in these races. | ||
| Like in Alabama, you're going to see some very competitive elections coming up in Alabama, in Georgia, in Mississippi, not as much in Mississippi this year. | ||
| They're off here, but in Florida, Tennessee, because we're going to be talking to people. | ||
| We're going to talk about issues that are important to them because we know that all politics is personal to them and their family, not in a selfish way, because it's personal to them and to their communities as well. | ||
| Those are the issues that I think Democrats have to get back to in places like the South and the Midwest and others that have kind of drifted away from the Democrats over the last 20, 30 years. | ||
| Steve, I've got a feeling that you remember the 2018 cycle pretty well. | ||
| That was the last time Republicans had a trifecta in Washington. | ||
| And Republicans lost the House that year where the future of the ACA and concerns about health care dominated that campaign cycle. | ||
| What parallels can you draw heading into 2026 and what advice do you have? | ||
| Well, I mean, health care was certainly a big issue in the 2018 cycle. | ||
| And, you know, it may be an issue this year. | ||
| I think the issue of 2026 is going to be affordability and affordability of the American Dream. | ||
| And it sure seems to be going that direction. | ||
| And I think Republicans need to get back to those talking points. | ||
| You know, when President Trump was in that McDonald's, he did the best job of the whole campaign on that one day of talking about affordability and how he was going to bring back affordability and the American dream. | ||
| And we need to stay focused on the things we need to do and deliver on those and then, you know, make sure that we talk about them. | ||
| So it's a real issue. | ||
| Interest rates are starting to come down. | ||
| So, you know, hopefully we'll see pricing continue to come down and they'll have a lot to talk about. | ||
| As Senator Jones said, there's a lot of green between here and the November elections next year, but if Republicans deliver on affordability and talk about affordability, I think they're going to be able to hold the House majority. | ||
| And the Senate map doesn't look as bad as it originally looked like it might be because of some retirements where we have winnable seats in places like New Hampshire. | ||
| And so I think there are opportunities to even expand the majority in the Senate this year. | ||
| Yeah, and actually to your point, one of the things that Republicans took away from last week's elections was that the candidates in those races did not talk enough about affordability. | ||
| President Trump also had some ideas about what happened. | ||
| He said the shutdown and the fact that he wasn't on the ballot is the reason why Republicans lost by such big margins. | ||
| Do you agree with that? | ||
| Is it a challenge for Republicans when Trump is not on the ballot? | ||
| I will say in the 18 cycle, there were a lot of voters who did not show up because President Trump wasn't on the ballot. | ||
| The sort of Trump-only voters just didn't show up in 18. | ||
| That was the real falloff for Republicans. | ||
| The base showed up, but the folks that had been motivated by President Trump didn't show up. | ||
| So we've got our work cut out for us in a few swing states and a few swing districts to make sure that those voters show up and know that this is important. | ||
| And I think President Trump says he's going to talk to those voters and do rallies and things to get them excited. | ||
| And I hope that works because that was the big deficit in 2018. | ||
| You can blame it on health care, blame it on a lot of things, but the Trump voters didn't show up at the same numbers in 18. | ||
| And the people who were upset, the Democrats were motivated and their turnout went up. | ||
| Senator Jones, I don't want to give you too much BTSD, but I do want to talk about 2020. | ||
| You lost to current Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville. | ||
| Let's take a listen to a portion of your concession speech. | ||
| At the end of the day, my time in the Senate is going to be over. | ||
| But our time has just begun. | ||
| Our time to make our state so much better than what it has been, to make sure that we continue the march of progress. | ||
| All right, Senator, you knew this one was coming. | ||
| You teased a possible run for Alabama governor would be against Tommy Tuberville once more. | ||
| You've got a captive audience here. | ||
| You've got a national audience here. | ||
| Any updates? | ||
| Are you planning to run for Alabama governor? | ||
| You know, I'm going to say the same thing I said the other day. | ||
| Just stay tuned. | ||
| We are looking at so many things. | ||
| All of those numbers and statistics I rattled off a minute ago, we're looking at all the possibilities. | ||
| We're looking at the affordability in Alabama, but we're also looking at the getting the wind of ourselves. | ||
| And the difference, there's a lot of differences today than there was in 2020, including the fact that Senator Tuberville now has a record that he's got to defend. | ||
| So we're looking at really very, very closely at that. | ||
| It's going to be an interesting year in Alabama. | ||
| I can guarantee that. | ||
| Congressman Stivers, your advice to the senator if he were to run? | ||
| Follow what you want to do. | ||
| Follow your passion. | ||
| I know you believe in the people of Alabama, and the Buckeyes will see you in the 12-game playoff. | ||
| Go Buckeyes. | ||
| All right, Congressman Stivers, last question for you. | ||
| Are you planning to run for any other elected office anytime soon? | ||
| You know, I've been at the Ohio Chamber for about four years. | ||
| I have fairly young children. | ||
| I'm home with my wife and kids almost every night. | ||
|
Funding Negotiations 2013
00:15:15
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| And my quality of life is really high right now. | ||
| I loved my time serving the public, and I may do it again someday, but I don't think it's going to be anytime soon. | ||
| need to get my kids through high school and actually pay for college. | ||
| So that doesn't work as well on the state. | ||
| I'm doing my best to get some news out of you both on this one, but you are united in holding back. | ||
| Thank you, gentlemen, both so much for being here with me. | ||
| Former Democratic Senator Doug Jones, former Republican Congressman Steve Stivers. | ||
| Appreciate you both. | ||
| All right, let's turn now to this week's C-SPAN flashback, where we dig deep into the video archives to show you a moment in political history that is eerily similar to what is happening today. | ||
| Now, we are taking you back to October 2013, when the federal government shut down after House Republicans refused to pass a budget deal unless it defunded or delayed the funding for the Affordable Care Act in a last-ditch effort to block the program from taking effect. | ||
| After 16 days, Republicans conceded and a continuing resolution was passed to keep funding the government. | ||
| Watch. | ||
| The eyes of the world have been on Washington all this week. | ||
| And that is a gross understatement. | ||
| And while they witnessed a great deal of political discord, today they'll also see Congress reach a historic bipartisan agreement to reopen the government and avert a default on the nation's bills. | ||
| This has been a long, challenging few weeks for Congress and for the country. | ||
| It's my hope that today we can put some of those most urgent issues behind us. | ||
| After yesterday's events, the majority leader and I began a series of conversations about a way to get the government reopened and to prevent default. | ||
| But let's be clear, there are no winners here. | ||
| These last few weeks have inflicted completely unnecessary damage on our economy. | ||
| We know that families have gone without paychecks or services they depend on, that the American people are completely fed up with Washington. | ||
| The 2013 shutdown did not accomplish Republicans' goal of stopping Obamacare. | ||
| Flash forward to today, eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus sided with Republicans to reopen the government. | ||
| This time, Democrats failed their chief goal of extending Affordable Care Act subsidies. | ||
| We've got two political pros from both sides of the aisle to discuss the shutdown and the biggest political topics of the week. | ||
| Republican strategist Hogan Gidley and Democratic strategist Ashley Etienne. | ||
| Thank you both so much for being here. | ||
| We talked about this behind the scenes, but you're putting your strategist hats on today, not your surrogate hats. | ||
| You're going to take us behind the scenes of what your parties are doing and why they're doing it. | ||
| We heard President Obama say there that there were no winners in that 2013 shutdown. | ||
| This one is finally over. | ||
| I can't believe it. | ||
| We might actually not be talking about it next week, but this week we do need to talk about it. | ||
| So Ashley, I want to start with you. | ||
| What is the mood among Democrats in the aftermath? | ||
| There's a lot of emotions. | ||
| You know, folks are, there's a lot of folks who are pissed, if I can use that word, about how things turned out. | ||
| You know, there are people who are calling for the heads of our leaders on both sides of the chamber and folks that feel like there was no clarity on the exit, the off-ramp, the exit strategy. | ||
| So there's a lot of feelings and emotions. | ||
| And then you pile on top of that the fact that we'll be back at this again in a couple months' time. | ||
| And so Democrats are questioning whether or not we're prepared for the next budget fight. | ||
| But here's a similarity that I'd like to point out between 2013 and this particular shutdown. | ||
| And that was in 2013, just as this time around, both bases were itching for a fight with the other, with the opposition. | ||
| And so I've always sort of assumed that a win for Democrats was to demonstrate to the leadership, I mean, to the members, their caucuses, as well as to the party apparatus at large that they could put up a fight, that they could withstand the pressure of a shutdown and get something out of the deal. | ||
| I think to a degree they did get something out of the deal. | ||
| They got a compromise or an agreement from the Republicans and the president to move forward to negotiate on ACA. | ||
| I think they're going to double down. | ||
| They're not walking away from this. | ||
| I just talked to Schumer just yesterday. | ||
| They're not going to walk away from the fight. | ||
| They're going to double down on it, double down on messaging around health care and the need to lower premiums and how it's exacerbating the tightening of people's pockets all over the country. | ||
| And they did put health care in the state light. | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| Hogan, for Republicans. | ||
| And that's a win, by the way. | ||
| Well, as Republicans. | ||
| And they demonstrated that they could fight too, I think, to a degree, right? | ||
| As the dust starts to settle for Republicans, where's their head at, the party at large? | ||
| Like, is this a win? | ||
| Are there drawbacks, especially coming off of last week's election? | ||
| Well, I would say uniquely, in an odd way, I guess, somehow Republicans have come together in this fight. | ||
| Typically, you see a lot of problems on our side of the aisle in large part because by our nature, we're more individualistic. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I would argue the other side is so tight on messaging all the time. | |
| This is maybe the one time there's been some divisions in recent memory. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Republicans have the slimmest margin of majorities in history on the House side. | |
| So tackling just a few votes here and there, like literally two or three that could upset the entire apple cart, is a juggling act that the Speaker, I think, has handled masterfully at this point. | ||
| Leader Thune had some problems on his side, but I think the constant coordination between both chambers is also extremely unique. | ||
| As you know, as you've covered it, the House wants to roll the Senate. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The Senate wants to send things to roll the House. | |
| In this particular instance, they said, listen, this is what we can do. | ||
| This is how we have to do it. | ||
| They stayed on message. | ||
| And I would argue coming out of this, the fight looks as though, in the public's eye, people don't like shutdowns. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It upsets their way of life in so many different instances. | |
| We've seen that now with air traffic controllers and women, infants and children not getting their funding for their programs. | ||
| So much of what we do in our daily lives are affected by shutdowns. | ||
| But I think the Republicans stuck together in a way that I've not seen in my 25 years in politics. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So right now, I think they're in a good spot. | |
| However, the looming fight ahead that Ashley pointed out is going to be about health care. | ||
| There is no doubt about it. | ||
| And so I think behind the scenes, I don't want to jump into the next topic without you getting there, but I think that's going to be where we're headed next. | ||
| You look at your crystal ball here because we will have one thing ahead of time. | ||
| I think Hogan's absolutely right. | ||
| This is the first time I've ever seen Republicans from the top all the way down on the same message, on the same, you know, working from the same playbook. | ||
| And interestingly enough, this is the first time I've seen Democrats that were not, you know, we've now gone through this process twice. | ||
| They were not coordinated. | ||
| I mean, just this past Sunday, Leader Jeffries was saying that they weren't going to cave. | ||
| And within hours, the Senate caved. | ||
| So it's like clearly these two sides aren't talking. | ||
| And can I just say one other thing? | ||
| I was in the war room for the 2018 shutdown working for Speaker Pelosi as her communications director. | ||
| And the way that we broke that shutdown was we did ground up pressure. | ||
| We used, you know, we put the pressure into the states, into the cities. | ||
| We're telling real stories about the economic impact of the shutdown. | ||
| And that's what applied pressure on Republicans. | ||
| They respond to a ground-up pressure, not a Washington, D.C. down. | ||
| And so I think if I had to talk about strategy, we played our cards wrong as Democrats. | ||
| We were in Washington, D.C. too much talking about process. | ||
| They don't want to meet. | ||
| They don't want to give us this. | ||
| Rather than talking, making the shutdown about the bad economics. | ||
| To that point, let me just play you a bit of sound. | ||
| This is from Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, who was one of the eight Democrats who voted to reopen the government. | ||
| Here's him explaining the threat of increasing insurance premiums was not enough pressure on the GOP. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I had Republicans say to me, we know we have to fix this, but you got to help us save face. | |
| And we put this line in the sand down that we won't, we'll only talk about fixing this once you reopen government. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And President Trump's insisting upon that. | |
| So we're not going to back down. | ||
| I mean, that seems like kind of an arbitrary position. | ||
| But I became convinced that they were sincere about that, that they were not going to talk about it as long as government was shut down. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We could have waited for a month or two months or five months. | |
| How many SNAP benefits then would have suffered? | ||
| They still weren't going to do it. | ||
| But by voting to reopen, now it's a live discussion. | ||
| So actually, that kind of plays right into your point. | ||
| He says Republicans were never going to come around, right? | ||
| But only eight Democratic caucus members sided with him. | ||
| Where was the rest of the party and why were they in such a different place? | ||
| Listen, Democrats always had a weak hand in this negotiation. | ||
| In 2018, when we were shut down for 35 days, Trump was trying to get money for his border wall. | ||
| So he was trying to negotiate for something as were we. | ||
| So it was a more lively negotiation. | ||
| But this time, Democrats had a weak hand. | ||
| And the other point I'd like to point out is, unlike in 18, Donald Trump was willing to shoot the hostage this time. | ||
| He was willing to push it all the way to the brink. | ||
| I mean, he's in court right now trying to prevent millions of kids from actually eating. | ||
| So that's the difference between these two situations. | ||
| And I think, you know, I was in the war room at Pelosi, and she looked at me when I said, this is getting too hard for too many Americans. | ||
| She looked at me and said, you got to have a stomach for this job, and too many people don't. | ||
| And so the Senate Democrats didn't have the stomach for the job to hold out. | ||
| But again, they did not do that ground up pressure on Republicans so that when Republicans were going home, they stayed at home all that time, that they felt it on the ground. | ||
| We didn't do a good job with that. | ||
| And, you know, it's interesting because the five families, we call them on the Republican House side of the aisle, the Freedom Caucus, the Main Street Caucus, the moderate, all those folks, typically are so at odds with each other. | ||
| In this instance, I think one of the things that did catch Democrats off guard was the fact that a lot of folks who have been solemnly opposed for their entrenched gut position for their entire life is we're never going to vote for a CR, a continuing resolution to fund the government. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They did it. | |
| And so all of a sudden, it was a very clear contrast of not only did we just vote to open the government and give you the funding you had under the Biden administration plus COVID era funding, which is not even a thing anymore, we all stuck together on that vote. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And for whatever reason, it was like Democrats, and I would argue to some degree, kind of smartly, said, we're going to try and bring health care into this. | |
| I can't tell you anecdotes, you know, anecdotes prove some of this. | ||
| In Ubers, a lot people would say to me, not in D.C., but in South Carolina or Georgia, would say to me, I can't believe they're doing this over health care. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I'm like, it's not over health. | |
| And I would try to explain them the situation. | ||
| So I was like, I realized it was sinking in that a lot of this was over health care in the minds of a lot of folks. | ||
| Whereas Republicans were like, no, here's the funding you wanted. | ||
| We're giving you the funding you wanted. | ||
| And being able to sit together under that, I think it was a much simpler way because I was in that shutdown in the White House in 2018. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And it was a lot of convoluted stuff. | |
| And because there was a border wall and because there were things to negotiate with, Republicans didn't have anything to negotiate with because we didn't load the bill with anything. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It was their funding. | |
| Well, this is such an interesting split screen for Democrats because you come off of this election win, way more of a blowout than people expected. | ||
| You've got healthcare in the spotlight. | ||
| Democrats are actually singing from the same songbook like Republicans on this show. | ||
| We're saying, wow, the messaging is actually, for the first time in a little while, really strong for Dems. | ||
| And then, boom, this shutdown ends in a way that is not so great for the party. | ||
| California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom was celebrating the election victories, the Prop 50 in California, but now says he's stunned by the eight senators' decision. | ||
| He said, quote, I'm not coming in to punch anybody in the face, but I'm not pleased that in the face of this invasive species that is Donald Trump, who's completely changed the rules of the game, that we're still playing by the old rules of the game. | ||
| So what does this mean for Democrats going forward? | ||
| I mean, I think that's where we are trying to answer that question. | ||
| I mean, you've got a problem with your messaging. | ||
| You've got a problem with, you know, your leadership not being able to outmaneuver Donald Trump and Republicans. | ||
| You've got a problem with your base. | ||
| We've got a growing trust gap with our base voters. | ||
| And then you've got a party to some degree that after Tuesday was feeling emboldened and then after Sunday was feeling completely deflated and defeated. | ||
| And so I think there's a lot of emotions and no one's really sure where do we go from here. | ||
| My argument to the Democratic Party is, and I said this to Chuck Schumer just yesterday, you've got to introduce an affirmative agenda. | ||
| Now is the time. | ||
| You saw what happened on Tuesday. | ||
| People firmly, it was a total, Tuesday was a vote to indict Donald Trump's economy. | ||
| It was a vote against Donald Trump. | ||
| People are clear about what's affecting their lives most deeply in this failing economy. | ||
| By their own admission, the administration's only mission, we're in the middle of a recession. | ||
| So my point is you've got to roll out an affirmative agenda that lays out your vision for lowering costs, lowering gas costs, electricity costs, grocery costs, all of those things to give the party something to rally around and something to draw this contrast between what we're seeing and experiencing with this failing economy and what Democrats would do differently. | ||
| That's where we've got to go next. | ||
| You talk to Schumer. | ||
| Take us behind the scenes to the extent you can. | ||
| How much trouble is he in and do you think he should step aside? | ||
| Well, I mean, I think it's clear that they're feeling some level of heat. | ||
| I think all the leadership is feeling heat. | ||
| It's not just him. | ||
| And I think it's, you know, all the, from the top down, from the head of the DNC to the two chambers. | ||
| You know, where the party decides to go next, I'm not sure. | ||
| I mean, the reality is nobody wants any of those jobs. | ||
| So, you know, so we're sort of, we're left with the leadership that we have. | ||
| But now, my point is that, to Gavin Newsom's point, you've got to start playing a different game. | ||
| And I think the way you do that is to get out of D.C., stop playing these beltway games with Donald Trump that you know you can't win, get out of D.C., launch an affirmative agenda, and really start playing in these red states, red districts, in place where we're seeing voter turnout down and disaffected Republicans pissed off with the administration. | ||
| I think that this, what the Democrats did with the shutdown leading up to this week did expose a vulnerability for Republicans, as you mentioned, health care. | ||
|
Epstein Files Controversy
00:12:59
|
||
| How does the GOP combat this? | ||
| Well, first thing first, I do want to say, because you know the Hills so well, and you mentioned this, which I think she's right about, and that is Democrats were in town in Washington, D.C. talking about this, which was problematic. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Republicans weren't. | |
| So you couldn't pull aside members of those five factions in the hallways and get them to say a different message or get them to go down a health care rabbit hole. | ||
| They focused on the shutdown, stayed on the shutdown, and that was it. | ||
| Democrats were in town going all over the place. | ||
| But they did bring up the issue of health care, which I think is something we're going to have to address moving forward. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It is very interesting always that the way bills are named in large part. | |
| I remember Rush Limbaugh used to say, if I were in Congress, I'd name every bill, the Martin Luther King Memorial Bill, because you couldn't vote against a bill called that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Inflation Reduction Act by the Democrats didn't reduce inflation, Affordable Care Act. | |
| It's far from affordable. | ||
| So it's a problem of their own making. | ||
| They created it. | ||
| They voted for it. | ||
| They administered it. | ||
| They raised the premiums have gone up. | ||
| It's unaffordable. | ||
| It's a real problem. | ||
| So what's going to happen to get fixed, I don't know because Republicans, as you know, are always underwater on the health care issue in a lot of ways. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I know that the White House has its own ideas of plans and ways to work in to help fix it. | |
| I know that the House is on this same page as well. | ||
| The Senate is working. | ||
| We've all got ideas of how to fix it. | ||
| But what Mike Johnson has been very clear about as Speaker, he's not going to do what Schumer wants to do, which is to get the four leaders in the room, Hakeem Jeffries, Thune, Schumer, and Johnson, and decide for the entire country what health care is going to be. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Johnson, for good or bad, is going to go to every member of his conference and say, give me your ideas. | |
| Let's talk about it and try and shape something from his side. | ||
| That's what's going to happen moving forward. | ||
| It's going to take some time and it will be a bloody political battle. | ||
| And interestingly enough, what I've noticed is that Republicans for the first time are solidifying their narrative and their messaging around ACA. | ||
| I mean, Hogan just laid it out. | ||
| It's too expensive. | ||
| It's not sustainable. | ||
| If it's affordable, why do we need to fix it? | ||
| I mean, they are literally crystallizing the message. | ||
| And I was just saying this again to Mr. Schumer. | ||
| The vulnerability for us is that we've never messaged against the negative on ACA. | ||
| We've always been on the offensive when it comes to ACA. | ||
| You know, we need to, you know, premiums are too high or pre-existing conditions. | ||
| Everybody should be covered. | ||
| That's an easier message than to explain why it's so expensive. | ||
| So up until just very recently, the shutdown healthcare, that was the headline. | ||
| Now we've got Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva sworn in, and the can of worms that is the Epstein story has flooded the headlines. | ||
| She was sworn in on Wednesday. | ||
| Grijalva and fellow Democrats accused Mike Johnson of blocking her swearing in to prevent her signature on a petition to trigger a vote to release the Epstein files. | ||
| Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released emails this week they obtained from the Epstein estate to show Jeffrey Epstein mentioning Donald Trump. | ||
| I want to play a little bit of sound. | ||
| Here's Democratic Congressman Suha Subramanyam explaining the decision to release the emails and Caroline Levitt giving the White House response. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, we got these documents from the Epstein estate, right? | |
| And they were releasing these in batches. | ||
| So it just so happens that they released this this past week and we were able to find emails involving President Trump where Ghelaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein were talking about him. | ||
| And it seemed to indicate that they had information about President Trump's involvement. | ||
| They seem to imply that President Trump had some sort of engagement and involvement with them. | ||
| And so, you know, certainly that raises questions in a time where President Trump is the one preventing the release of the files that the FBI, DOJ have about the Epstein case. | ||
| When Joe Biden was sitting in there, the Democrats never brought this up. | ||
| This wasn't an issue that they cared about because they actually don't care about the victims in these cases. | ||
| They care about trying to score political points against President Trump, as we have, of course, seen with this government shutdown. | ||
| And this entire thing, again, it's not a coincidence to the American people at home. | ||
| There are no coincidences in Washington, D.C. | ||
| And it is not a coincidence that the Democrats leaked these emails to the fake news this morning ahead of Republicans reopening the government. | ||
| This is another distraction campaign. | ||
| All right, so just about every Republican I talked to, even people close to the president and officials in the White House, said that the last time this took over the news cycle, the White House botched their response to the Epstein files. | ||
| What do you think about their response now, what you heard from Caroline, what we've been hearing from the president? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think it's very sharp and I think it's very strong. | |
| The fact is these emails prove that Donald Trump did nothing wrong. | ||
| The person that Democrats redacted from the document was someone, what's her name? | ||
| Jude Strange. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Jude. | |
| Yeah, right. | ||
| Who said multiple times Trump had nothing to do with this? | ||
| But far be it from her, you also had Epstein's own attorney, Alan Dershowitz, also a lifelong liberal, said Donald Trump had nothing to do with this. | ||
| Jillian Maxwell under oath said multiple times Donald Trump had nothing to do with this. | ||
| And so that fact, I think, aside, this issue is interesting to me in large part because as Caroline Levitt laid out, four years Democrats had all this information, control of all the little departments and agencies and didn't bring this up at all. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's a little bit concerning. | |
| Not to mention the fact when it was finally Grahala's time, sworn in, she signs the discharge petition. | ||
| They have the votes needed. | ||
| Massey brings it up on the floor and says, all right, let's do a unanimous consent. | ||
| And Democrats stopped the unanimous consent to vote on it. | ||
| They just stopped it. | ||
| That is insane. | ||
| So if they really cared that much, and one more little point I'd like to make. | ||
| We wouldn't even be talking about these emails or the Epstein situation if it wasn't for Republicans releasing it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It was them who put them out. | |
| So why do you think, Hogan, that the president is pushing back so hard, saying that Republicans are terrible and stupid for wanting to get these things released? | ||
| Do you think he's kind of being his own worst enemy here by trying to keep this from coming out? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think he knows Washington, D.C. a hell of a lot better this time than he did the first few months of his first term. | |
| And that is he knows that without these letters, and I watched MSNBC and CNN pretty much all day after the release of the letters, or the emails rather, it was wall-to-wall Epstein. | ||
| He knows the successes he's had with ending foreign wars, with closing the border, lower prices for gas, and we've seen inflation coming down, all these things, crime coming down, the shutdown ending because he knows what in D.C. they will do is cover something like this as opposed to successes from Republicans. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I imagine it's very frustrating because you can't break through when the entire media apparatus in Washington, D.C. decides to focus on salacious nonsense as opposed to significant wins for the American people. | |
| So what are Democrats to do with this? | ||
| That was so good, Hogan. | ||
| Maybe you need to get some more wins. | ||
| No, I think, here's the thing. | ||
| I think you're absolutely right. | ||
| The real question is, then if he has nothing to do with it and he's in the clear, then why is he mounting a pressure campaign to get Republicans? | ||
| So is that the Democratic messaging? | ||
| Is that what they should be focused on? | ||
| That is what they're focused on. | ||
| And they're also focusing on this question of, well, what are you hiding? | ||
| We have to do what's in the interest of the victims. | ||
| But let me just clarify this debate a little bit. | ||
| This issue of the Epstein files bubbled up from the MAGA base, from those conspiracy theories who thought that it was going to be Bill Clinton that was actually in the document, not Donald Trump. | ||
| I mean, by some accounts, Donald Trump's name is in these documents more than Epstein's name is in these documents. | ||
| So it's clear they had an intimate relationship according to these emails. | ||
| And it's clear that Donald Trump knew that Epstein was engaging with underage girls. | ||
| So the question is, well, what was your involvement in that? | ||
| And if you knew, then why did you not say anything about it? | ||
| But I will say this, though. | ||
| I think we have to shift as a strategist, we have to shift gears on how we're talking about Epstein, not as an isolated event. | ||
| We need to talk about it as a part of Donald Trump's culture of corruption, the fact that he's trying to cover something up. | ||
| All of this Epstein stuff needs to ladder up in my mind to a message about corruption, and we've not moved to that degree yet, and we need to. | ||
| That's what I was going to ask. | ||
| I mean, do you think Democrats risk over-indexing on Epstein files talk when Republicans do have this talking point of like, well, you had time in the Biden administration to do it, and you also learned the lesson that Republicans learned as well from this last election that voters really care about affordability. | ||
| They care about cost of living. | ||
| And does focusing on Epstein kind of risk losing the message that you've been succeeding on? | ||
| Well, again, I mean, just to infuse this conversation with some more facts, I mean, it was the Republicans that made an issue of the Epstein files, not us. | ||
| I mean, this is why Biden did nothing about it. | ||
| Well, the Democrats are now sort of taking the mantle here. | ||
| No, absolutely. | ||
| But I think my point is, if you say that our intention was to weaponize it against the president, my point is we did not, that's not how it started. | ||
| Exactly. | ||
| So our question then is, well, what are you covering up? | ||
| Now we need to dig because you clearly are trying to cover something up from the head of the party all the way down. | ||
| But I think the thing is, is you can do more than one thing at a time. | ||
| When we won 40 seats in 2018, we had three message frameworks. | ||
| One was jobs, health care, and corruption. | ||
| Those three messages still permeate in our priority. | ||
| But you're saying it's about connecting the dots now. | ||
| You have to connect it to the corruption. | ||
| And then corruption is a really big bucket. | ||
| I mean, for Donald Trump, I mean, it's the biggest bucket. | ||
| And people are already bought in on these issues. | ||
| If you look at the polling right now, he's underwater on each one of those issues. | ||
| So my point to Democrats and even your audience listening, there's not one message framework that wins an election. | ||
| You've got to hit him on every front where they're vulnerable, and that he's vulnerable on all three of those. | ||
| Hogan, for Republicans, this is one issue that has caused a fracture among the base. | ||
| And you're likely going to see this pass in the House with some Republican votes. | ||
| You might even see this pass in the Senate. | ||
| And the president's clearly none too happy about that. | ||
| So how do you find unity for Republicans? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, it's interesting, though, but this just solidifies my point. | |
| No one's covering this up on our side. | ||
| Comer and his committee are leading the charge on this and actually giving safeguards to the victims who suffered horrific tragedies, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
But that wasn't our fault. | |
| You guys kept it closed. | ||
| So Mike Johnson clearly does not want to open the house. | ||
| It is not. | ||
| Not only is it coming forward next week, he is fast-tracking it. | ||
| They literally tried unanimous consent yesterday and Democrats blocked it. | ||
| And then on top of that, Comer and his committee, they're the ones who released the letters we're even talking about right now. | ||
| Of course, MAGA was concerned about Epstein and what he was doing because we were angry that someone that powerful and his network of child sex ring wasn't being talked about more. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And who were the powerful that were involved with it? | |
| But journalists themselves also, interestingly enough, Michael Wolf working with this child predator to try and strategize against Donald Trump. | ||
| The New York Times reporters also working with Epstein to try and mess around with Trump too. | ||
| It also shows a lot of interesting bedfellows, forgive the phrase, with someone like Epstein, who is a known child predator and criminal child sex trafficker, and reporters in D.C. to get us to release the files. | ||
| It's really that simple. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's why I'm talking about the future. | |
| Listen, to get us back to the spirit of ceasefire, I think one thing that this story does put in the spotlight is there is some unity around more transparency from the government. | ||
| You've got a Venn diagram of Democrats and Republicans calling for it. | ||
| I want to end on something a little bit more fun, which is our weekly feature, not on my bingo card. | ||
| There's a lot of funky, unexpected moments in politics these days that we like to highlight this week. | ||
| President Trump welcomes the Syrian president to Washington. | ||
| It marked the first time a Syrian head of state has visited the White House. | ||
| But it's this video posted by the Syrian foreign minister that's going viral. | ||
| The Syrian leader finding time to shoot some hoops while in the U.S. You can see him here playing basketball with senior U.S. military officials Admiral Brad Cooper and Brigadier General Kevin Lambert. | ||
|
Arizona Delegation Moment
00:03:40
|
||
| Not something you see every day. | ||
| How are his hops? | ||
| What do we think? | ||
| The form is a little questionable, I will say, but he's clearly effective. | ||
|
unidentified
|
He sees me says this is making it him sweating outside and the smell is probably why Trump needed to spray him with his Trump cologne. | |
| I think that's probably it. | ||
| The trunk cologne, the Melania perfume, maybe all the scents are going around. | ||
| This is, I don't know how popular basketball is in Syria, but clearly he got a lot of people. | ||
| Well, I'm glad to see that they kept the basketball goal there at the White House, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
With all the changes, we got some basketball. | |
| Obama still lives on, right? | ||
| Thank you both so much. | ||
| Republican strategist Hogan Kidley, Democratic strategist Ashley Etienne. | ||
| Thank you both so much for joining me. | ||
| And we'll close this week's program with our ceasefire moment of the week, highlighting what's possible when politicians come together as Americans, not just partisans. | ||
| Here's Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva during her ceremonial swearing in this week by Speaker Mike Johnson. | ||
| As we mentioned earlier, Grajalva had to wait several weeks to officially join Congress during the shutdown. | ||
| Let's take a look at the official swearing in, which included some kind words from one of her new Republican colleagues, Paul Gosar. | ||
| Will Representative-elect Grajalva and members of the Arizona delegation present themselves in the well, and all members will rise. | ||
| And the Representative-elect will raise her right hand. | ||
| Do you solemnly swear or affirm that you will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic? | ||
| That you will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that you take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that you will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which you are about to enter. | ||
| So help you, God. | ||
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I do. | |
| Congratulations, you're now a member of the 119th Congress. | ||
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It is my pleasure to rise today to congratulate our newest colleague and fellow Arizonan on our swearing-in as a representative from Arizona's 7th Congressional District, Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva. | |
| Congresswoman Grajalva has concentrated her career on issues associated in advocating for students and supporting families. | ||
| As she follows her late father's footsteps, and boy, those are some footsteps, especially with those bolo ties. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| I have no doubt she will bring to the halls of Congress the same energy that has defined her years of public service. | ||
| A nice moment shared between members of the Arizona delegation. | ||
| That's all the time we have for this episode. | ||
| Join us next time as I sit down with Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman and Alabama Republican Senator Katie Britt. | ||
| Ceasefire is also available as a podcast. | ||
| Find us in all the usual places. | ||
| I'm Dasha Burns. | ||
| remember, whether or not you agree, keep talking and keep listening. | ||
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C-SPAN, democracy unfiltered. | |
| We're funded by these television companies and more, including Comcast. | ||
|
High-Speed Internet Needed
00:00:23
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Agriculture is the main life in Sussex County. | |
| I'm very proud of that. | ||
| I felt like we were being left behind. | ||
| Everybody around us seemed to have internet, but we did not. | ||
| When I found out that Comcast was coming, I ran down the road and I said, welcome. | ||
| High-speed internet is one of those good things that we needed to help us move our farming, our small businesses, our recreation forward. | ||