Rep. Melanie Stansbury highlights Republican Matt Van Epps’ narrow 9-point win in Tennessee’s 7th District—despite Trump’s prior 22-point victory—noting the party’s midterm vulnerability after spending millions to hold the seat. She condemns the White House’s Venezuela strikes, citing unclassified reports of extrajudicial killings targeting civilians, no congressional approval, and legal inconsistencies, while questioning why Trump commuted a narco-linked Honduran president’s sentence. House Democrats Jeffries and Schumer later unite against Trump’s administration, blaming it for soaring living costs and failing to deliver promised relief, framing 2026 as a pivotal year for accountability and policy shifts amid executive overreach concerns. [Automatically generated summary]
You know, I don't think it's any surprise that he won.
Trump won this district by 22 points, and the former representative did nearly as well.
But I think what is the real surprise here is that he only won by nine points.
And this should not have even been close.
In fact, the Republicans, just to hold on to the seat, had to spend millions of dollars, and Trump himself had to spend over a million dollars from his PAC.
And I think what this indicates is heading into the midterms that seats that Republicans thought were a sure bet for them are no longer secure.
And this means it's time to get to work, and we're ready to take back the House and take back every seat we can.
I think under the current maps, Democrats are leading in the polling on every single issue because the Republicans passed their big ugly bill, which cuts health care, it cuts food assistance, it cuts educational assistance, it gives tax breaks and giveaways to billionaires.
The White House hasn't even provided a consistent story at this point.
You know, every day, every hour, they seem to be changing their story.
I think what is obvious at this point is the chain of command was the president and the Secretary of Defense.
And that second strike violated at least the military code and likely international law, as well as potentially domestic law and potentially being murder.
And so there are now two bipartisan investigations in both the House and the Senate to look into what was known.
You know, I saw a Secretary of Defense claim during the cabinet meeting yesterday that he didn't witness it.
I don't care if he witnessed it or not.
If he gave an order to kill civilians or combatants who were in the water who were unarmed, that is a violation of the law, and he will be ultimately held accountable.
Well, I don't know what they're referencing, but certainly, first of all, the administration has not even come to Capitol Hill to seek a declaration of war.
They are claiming that they are waging a war on drug cartels in Venezuela without any definition of what that means.
There are classified documents that they've provided to the Hill, and as far as we can tell, they are trying to stretch the law to justify basically doing extrajudicial killings off the coast of Venezuela.
And what is it in service of?
It appears to be in service of regime change, not in service of actually seeking a declaration of war.
We are not at war with Venezuela or its people.
And so it's very clear that this administration does not think they have to follow the law, whether that's international law, domestic law, or military law.
And that is why members on both sides of the aisle are deeply disturbed not only about this killing in September, but the overall scope of what the administration is trying to do in Venezuela.
And it's clear violations of the Constitution and violations of the law.
Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury is in the studio with us.
She's a Democrat of New Mexico.
If you'd like to join our conversation, you can start calling in now.
Republicans are on 202748-8000.
Democrats 202748-88, sorry, Republicans 8,001, Democrats, 8,000, and Independents 202748-8002.
The administration has called these narco-terrorists that they are killing Americans.
There's been 100,000 Americans killed in overdoses.
Where do you stand on that?
And that, you know, the argument is made is that any bit of drugs that are being stopped and not being allowed to flow into the United States is a good thing.
Well, I guess my question, and I think the question on everyone's mind is: if the president is so concerned with narco-terrorists, why did he just commute the sentence of one of the most notorious narco-traffickers under American law with the commuting of the sentence of the Honduran president just in the last few days?
I mean, this man was known to have helped traffic literally tons of narco products into the United States.
Secondly, there's no clear evidence that these boats are engaged in narco-trafficking to the United States.
But most importantly, the U.S. Constitution is clear.
If you want to go to war with a foreign nation, you have to come to Congress.
It has to be debated before Congress, and Congress holds the authority to declare war, not the administration.
And I appreciate efforts to address drug trafficking.
I represent a border state in New Mexico, and fentanyl has had an absolutely devastating impact on our community.
But what we know is that the vast majority of fentanyl products are crossing the physical land border between Mexico.
And the way that we address that is by going after drug traffickers on the border, by preventing those products from making it to Mexico from China through negotiations with the Chinese government, not conducting extrajudicial killings of Venezuelan fishermen off the coast of South America.
Good morning, and thank you guys for having me on.
Thank you, Representative Stansbury, for being here today to answer questions.
Look, a lot, at least what I could say as a young Democrat, what we could see is a lot of Democrats are definitely annoyed about this Trump administration is doing and we are glad that there are still representatives like you that are still holding the Trump administration accountable, still reminding him that there's still a rule of law and still reminding him and the rest of this administration that there are laws in place for a reason.
There are checks and balances for a reason.
Now, thank you for reminding the Trump administration that they still have to go to Congress if they want to go to war with any foreign nation.
And one thing that I'm seeing is that a lot of the times that this occurs, the Trump administration has, they claim they have no idea that these strikes are even occurring.
That's ridiculous.
So in 2026, when the Democrats flip the House, what can a Speaker Jeffries group of leaders do and what results can the American people expect on checks and balances of the Trump administration?
The checks and balances of this country have been absolutely gutted by the Trump administration.
And what I've been saying is this: 2026 is about reclaiming our democracy, and 2028 is about restoring our country.
We have to understand that Donald Trump will still be in the White House unless something else happens.
We know he has failing health right now.
But we have a very good chance of taking back the majority in the House.
It's important to understand that the House is a majority institution, which means if you're not in the majority, you don't control the floor.
You don't control committees.
You don't control legislation.
So when we take back the House in 2026, Speaker Jeffries and the Democratic leadership will absolutely go after the historic corruption of the Trump administration and ensure that we are conducting oversight.
Now, our ability to ultimately hold the Trump administration accountable will depend on whether or not our colleagues across the aisle in the Senate are going to play ball and do their constitutional duty and hold individuals in the administration who are breaking the law accountable.
And I think we've seen multiple instances of potentially impeachable offenses, not only by the president, but by members of his cabinet over the last several weeks and months.
And so at the end of the day, it's not just about taking back the House and the Senate and the White House in 28.
It's important that our colleagues across the aisle who were duly elected by the American people to provide a check and balance on this administration finally step up and hold the Trump administration accountable.
It's not just on us.
This is their job.
This is what the founding fathers imagined when they set up our Constitution.
And that is the purpose of having a people's house is to have a check on unchecked administrative power.
I couldn't hear every detail of it, but let me just say that under the current polling and data that we see across the country, Democrats will take back the House.
And that is why the president and the Republican establishment have been trying to cheat.
Why they've been trying to redistrict in multiple states is because they are trying to change the map so that they're more favorable to them.
In terms of the outcome in Tennessee, I'll just reiterate what I said, which is that that race should not have even been close.
There was a point last night as data was coming in, especially from the Nashville area, where the Democratic candidate was actually ahead.
I mean, that's when you think about this is a district that Trump won by 22 points.
There shouldn't have ever been a moment like that.
So that really indicates the discomfort and distrust that the American people have with the current administration.
And I'll just say this, if you look at the polling, this is the least popular president in American history at this point in his tenure in American history.
And people are suffering out there right now.
The economy is bad.
People can't afford housing, utilities, groceries.
Well, I'm not sure if we're going to hear the rest of the question.
Listen, I don't take delight in anyone being sick or poor health.
I'm simply pointing out that the President of the United States, number one, did not attend a NATO meeting yesterday.
He has his son-in-law and personal advisor meeting with a foreign dictator in Russia, and he couldn't even keep his eyes open in a cabinet meeting yesterday.
The president is unwell.
He is not fit to be leading the United States right now.
And those, to me, are objective facts.
And I think the American people's discomfort with this presidency are an indication and a symptom of what's going on.
On behalf of the American people and House and Senate Democrats are in lockstep around the need to drive down the high cost of living here in the United States of America.
Our country is far too expensive.
Donald Trump and Republicans promised to lower costs on day one.