CSPAN - LIVE U.S. House of Representatives
Aired: 2026-04-22
Duration: 42:59


=== Democracy Unfiltered Live (01:56) ===

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=== Fighting Back Against Extremists (15:27) ===

[00:01:58]  The White House Gar Respondents Dinner, live this Saturday at 7 p.m. Eastern.
[00:02:02]  On C-SPAN, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at c-SPAN.org.
[00:02:10]  On Tuesday, Virginia voters approved a plan that could add as many as four Democratic seats in this year's midterm elections, following similar redistricting efforts in Texas and California, among many other states across the country.
[00:02:22]  Up next, House Democratic leaders speaking to reporters about last night's vote results.
[00:02:27]  Here are their remarks.
[00:02:34]  Good morning, everyone.
[00:02:36]  I'm Susan Delbene, the chair of the Driple C. Appreciate everyone being here.
[00:02:42]  Thank you so much to Leader Jeffries for just your steadfast and unwavering leadership.
[00:02:47]  When Donald Trump and Republicans started their political power grab last summer in Texas, the leader was unfazed and has been tireless in making sure the Democratic response was united, strong, fierce, and that whatever we did to fight back, it was always in the best interests of the American people.
[00:03:09]  Thank you to the General Assembly who had the courage to give Virginians the opportunity to fight back.
[00:03:15]  Thank you to Governor Abigail Spanberger, to Senator Louise Lucas, and Speaker Don Scott for standing shoulder to shoulder with us and making today possible.
[00:03:25]  Thank you to everyone in the Commonwealth who voted, who volunteered, who stood up for fair representation.
[00:03:32]  Because of you, we have held back a Republican power grab and leveled the playing field in the fight for the majority in the people's house.
[00:03:41]  Last night's results are what happens when voters decide, and it's as simple as that.
[00:03:47]  Contrast that to House Republicans who have at every possible opportunity ignored the people that they are supposed to serve.
[00:03:55]  Last year, they hid from the public while they shoved their big, ugly bill through that decimated health care, raised costs, and took food off of people's tables, all because Donald Trump demanded it.
[00:04:08]  They stayed on vacation during the longest government shutdown in history while Democrats were fighting for affordable health care.
[00:04:15]  And instead of listening to their local businesses or the struggling families in their districts pleading with them to stop Donald Trump's reckless tariffs, they just rubber stamped them.
[00:04:27]  So when Donald Trump called up and said, Give me five more seats in Texas, it is sadly no surprise that they all just said, yes, sir.
[00:04:37]  And that's fundamentally what's been behind the Republican effort to rig the midterms of subservience to Donald Trump while they ignore their constituents back home.
[00:04:47]  But we're seeing the American people fight back.
[00:04:50]  Voters from California to Virginia and everywhere in between won't let Republicans cheat their way into holding on to power.
[00:04:59]  We've always said that the public hates the Republican scheme to rig the midterms, and when given the opportunity, they would hold Republicans accountable for their attack on fair representation.
[00:05:11]  And last night, the voters of Virginia rejected the Republican power grab and helped put us on the path to House Democrats taking back the majority.
[00:05:20]  Listening to the American people and fighting for them should not be a novel concept.
[00:05:26]  Yet for Republicans, they're either incapable or indifferent to it.
[00:05:31]  Their refusal to fight for the people is a defining contrast.
[00:05:35]  And because Democrats are listening to the people, we are winning.
[00:05:39]  And our work is not yet done.
[00:05:41]  The ultimate referendum will take place at the ballot box this November.
[00:05:46]  And we're confident that voters will hold Republicans accountable for their cruel, cost-spiking, and corrupt agenda and power Democrats to victory in the midterms when we take back the House majority.
[00:06:01]  This has been a critical time.
[00:06:03]  We are using every tool to continue to fight back and stand up for the American people.
[00:06:07]  And the person who has been leading us, and as I said before, tirelessly, has been our incredible leader, Hakeem Jeffries.
[00:06:15]  I'm going to turn it over to him.
[00:06:16]  Good morning, everyone.
[00:06:17]  Thank you so much to Susan Delbene, our field general, who is doing an extraordinary job leading the DCCC in our efforts to make sure that we take back the House in November.
[00:06:30]  House Democrats will continue to fight one battle after another on behalf of the American people.
[00:06:39]  We're battling them on the economy, battling them on tariffs, battling them on health care, battling them on nutritional assistance, battling them on ICE funding, battling them on Donald Trump's reckless and costly war of choice, and battling them on their gerrymandering scheme.
[00:07:00]  Last night was a big victory for the people of Virginia, a big victory for America, and a big victory for democracy.
[00:07:11]  Donald Trump and Republicans launched this gerrymandering war.
[00:07:17]  And we've made clear as Democrats that we're going to finish it on behalf of the American people.
[00:07:24]  We will not let Donald Trump rig the midterm elections by gerrymandering maps all across the country without a forceful Democratic response.
[00:07:38]  That is what you saw in Virginia.
[00:07:41]  That is what you will see in Florida.
[00:07:44]  And that is what has taken place all across the country.
[00:07:49]  Prop 50 in California, forcing them into a dummy mander in Texas, picking up a seat in Utah, stopping them in New Hampshire, stopping them in Indiana,
[00:08:05]  stopping them in Kansas, stopping them in Nebraska, pushing them back in Ohio and winning a big victory for the American people in Virginia.
[00:08:21]  These Republican extremists thought that we were going to step back.
[00:08:25]  They had us confused.
[00:08:28]  We were never going to step back.
[00:08:30]  We're going to continue to fight back all the way through November 3rd, where Democrats will take back control of the House of Representatives so we can drive down the high cost of living, fix our broken health care system, clean up corruption, get ICE under control, stop this reckless and costly war of choice in this national nightmare in America, and continue our country's march toward a more perfect union.
[00:08:58]  I want to thank Governor Spamberger, thank Speaker Don Scott, thank the General Assembly, thank the Virginia congressional delegation, and thank President Barack Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder,
[00:09:11]  and everyone who was involved in this extraordinary effort to get this done in Virginia as part of our unyielding commitment to stop the MA power grab wherever it is taking place across this country.
[00:09:30]  It's now my honor to yield to the whip, my good friend, my classmate, and extraordinary leader, Catherine Clark.
[00:09:38]  Thank you so much.
[00:09:40]  Thank you so much, Mr. Leader.
[00:09:42]  We are so grateful for you, for your vision, for your fight, and for helping have this victory.
[00:09:49]  And to Susan Del Bennett for her courage and strength as she marches towards victory in November, giving us the resources and the vision of how we get this done.
[00:10:03]  So it's a funny thing about a GOP agenda that inflicts higher prices, corruption, and war.
[00:10:11]  It makes people angry and it inflicts economic pain.
[00:10:16]  But instead of choosing to work for Americans, the Republicans in the House have decided to rig our elections.
[00:10:25]  They tried to cling to power by choosing their voters.
[00:10:30]  And this started in North Carolina in the 24 elections, where the three seats that they eliminated cost us the majority.
[00:10:44]  But they went on, instead of taking that majority and putting it to use for the good of the American people, it has been an agenda of costs, cruelty, and chaos.
[00:10:58]  Democrats have taken a different route.
[00:11:02]  We think the American people should decide the future of their democracy.
[00:11:08]  We think they should decide who controls the people's house, not the politicians.
[00:11:15]  And that's why we're putting redistricting on the ballot, not making backroom deals that are forced on voters.
[00:11:23]  And that's why we are winning.
[00:11:26]  The American people deserve better than they're getting.
[00:11:30]  They deserve better than illegal tariffs and health care cuts and secret police causing chaos and murdering Americans in the streets.
[00:11:42]  That's why Republicans are losing this redistricting fight that they started from California to Utah to now Virginia.
[00:11:52]  And it's why Democrats are going to win in November.
[00:11:57]  And I am also on my list of those that we are grateful to include the chairman of our caucus, Pete Aguilar, who helped us lead the efforts in California to meet Republicans and bring us to victory in that redistricting effort and was absolutely critical in the results we saw in Virginia.
[00:12:21]  With that, I yield to you, Pete.
[00:12:24]  Thank you, Whip Clark, and to Susan Delbene and Leader Jeffries.
[00:12:28]  Truly, without their efforts here leaning in, this would not have happened.
[00:12:33]  But it's very clear.
[00:12:34]  The American people have spoken.
[00:12:36]  They are not going to stand by and let Donald Trump and House Republicans rig our elections so that we have two more years of making life harder and more expensive for working families.
[00:12:48]  In Virginia and California and Utah and in states around the country, Americans have made their voices heard and they have fought back against Republican attempts to silence them.
[00:12:59]  For more than a year, the American people have watched as Republicans have ripped away health care, driven up costs, prioritized billionaires over their lives.
[00:13:09]  But rather than change their policies to actually improve the lives of people around our country, Republicans and Donald Trump have doubled down working to steal the next election to support their own efforts.
[00:13:23]  Democrats won't let that happen.
[00:13:25]  I was privileged to play a role in our efforts in Proposition 50 in California to directly counter Trump and the Texas scheme that he engineered.
[00:13:35]  And in the fall, Californians made it clear that Republicans had violated that trust that night and Virginians made it clear last night.
[00:13:45]  And they said clearly, enough is enough.
[00:13:47]  While Republicans take their cues from Donald Trump, drawing maps in back rooms and in the middle of the night without input of voters, Democrats, in these examples that we have talked about, took that fight to the American people.
[00:14:01]  And at the ballot box, members, constituents in these states, had the opportunity to push back against Donald Trump.
[00:14:10]  And the people decided.
[00:14:11]  Democrats have the momentum, the candidates, and the American people on our side.
[00:14:16]  We will fight and we will win the House this November.
[00:14:20]  Republicans have started this fight, but Democrats, and more importantly, the American people are the ones who will finish it.
[00:14:27]  Yield back to the leader.
[00:14:29]  Thank you, Pete.
[00:14:29]  And let me join Catherine in thanking you and members of the California delegation, Zoe Lofgin, who did an amazing job in connection with that unified effort to win Prop 50 decisively at the beginning of this fight.
[00:14:44]  And as Pete indicated and Catherine and Susan, we're in this fight until we win this fight on behalf of the American people.
[00:14:51]  Questions?
[00:14:53]  If Democrats do win back the House next year, will you advance a bill to ban gerrymandering and advance independent redistricting, or is this a recognition of a new era when every state will try to draw maps based on political parties?
[00:15:08]  We've continued to stand behind our prior efforts to establish one national standard that would prohibit mid-decade partisan gerrymandering all across the country.
[00:15:22]  But what we're not going to do is unilaterally disarm.
[00:15:27]  Apparently, that's what Donald Trump believed that we would do.
[00:15:31]  That's what James Blair believed that we would do.
[00:15:36]  Had us confused in terms of the moment that we're in and the need to push back consistently with the fierce urgency of now.
[00:15:49]  Going back to that moment when James Blair and Malong were talking about Texas, there was a lot of talk about how risky this is, that it would look like you guys were hypocritical by now embracing a response by the decade-three gerrymander.
[00:16:07]  So, can you go back to that moment why you decided to move forward on this?
[00:16:14]  The stakes are incredibly high, and it's the American people who should be the ones to decide who serves in the majority, not Donald Trump and his MAGA extremists.
[00:16:26]  They launched this gerrymandering war because they were trying to rig the midterm elections and prevent the people from being able to decide who actually controls the majority.
[00:16:38]  And the reason why they've launched this gerrymandering war is because Republicans under Donald Trump have been a complete and total failure.
[00:16:46]  They failed on everything, everywhere, most significantly on the economy, and that have gotten us into this reckless war of choice.
[00:16:56]  I want to yield to Susan and Catherine to respond to this, but from the very beginning, in our conversations with Gavin Newsom, the Democrats in the Texas legislature who made the brave decision to go on quorum break so they could shine a spotlight on Donald Trump's gerrymandering scheme nationally, as opposed to Texas Republicans being allowed to simply get away with it in the dead of night.

=== Republicans Rigging The System (05:24) ===

[00:17:25]  But we also decided that as we were going to respond, we were going to respond in a manner consistent with our values.
[00:17:32]  Yes, we were going to win this fight.
[00:17:36]  But it's also important to note, our response has been forceful, temporary, as a direct reaction to what MAGA extremists have done, and at all times approved by the voters.
[00:17:53]  That's the big difference between how we've approached this effort and Republicans who are going into state legislatures in the dead of night, passing maps, and then being afraid to present those maps to the people in those states.
[00:18:11]  Right now in Missouri, we have collected enough signatures to take the Missouri gerrymander before the people in November for an up or down vote as to whether that map should take effect after the 2026 election.
[00:18:29]  And Republicans are fighting us in court.
[00:18:33]  And so we don't want to hear any pearl clutching from these people on the other side of the aisle.
[00:18:40]  We take our case to the voters.
[00:18:43]  They don't.
[00:18:45]  And if they're on the right side of this fight, why are they pushing back in Missouri?
[00:18:50]  Just allow the map to go forward, the current map to go forward, and then the voters can decide in Missouri, pursuant to the Missouri Constitution, as to whether it should be enacted.
[00:19:03]  The Republicans are fighting us right now because they're afraid of their own voters.
[00:19:12]  But we're going to keep the pressure on them at all times.
[00:19:18]  Catherine, Susan?
[00:19:20]  Go ahead.
[00:19:22]  I just want to add the reason they started down this path is they know the American people have turned against the Republican agenda.
[00:19:30]  And so if you think you're winning with voters, they support what you're doing, the legislation you've passed, the actions taken by the White House, then why would you go about trying to rig the system?
[00:19:43]  They're rigging the system because they know they're losing.
[00:19:46]  And instead of listening to the American people, they've decided the only way they can win is to try to redistrict and change the rules to favor them.
[00:19:55]  And it is, as the leader said, they won't go to the people.
[00:19:59]  They don't take the vote to the people.
[00:20:00]  Missouri, they're doing everything possible to try to prevent the people from having a say.
[00:20:05]  In Florida, the people have been clear.
[00:20:07]  They passed a law to prevent mid-cycle redistricting.
[00:20:12]  And they're not going to the people to ask them if they want to change that.
[00:20:17]  They're trying to look at redistricting there as well without talking to the people of Florida.
[00:20:22]  That's what Republicans are doing across the board.
[00:20:24]  And I think it's very clear people are tired of the Republican agenda.
[00:20:28]  We've seen in special elections, Democrats are running ahead across the country.
[00:20:33]  And we have opportunities, even in a place like Texas now, because people are so tired of what they see from Republicans, to pick up seats.
[00:20:42]  So we are going to continue to fight all across the country.
[00:20:45]  And the American people are with us.
[00:20:50]  Yeah, let me just briefly reemphasize what the leader just said.
[00:20:54]  They are operating from a place of fear because they fear their own voters, because they chose an agenda that drove up prices, that has corruption at its heart, and that has created chaos in American communities as what they were going to do.
[00:21:16]  And when the American people are telling them that they are not making it, that over 60% of American families are unable to meet the basic needs, their response isn't, we've got to correct course and start working for them, live up to our promises of reducing costs, of releasing the Epstein files, and no new wars.
[00:21:42]  They're going along with an agenda that gives up on all of that.
[00:21:46]  And so when they are trying to win an election on broken promises, this is what they came up with as the only path forward.
[00:21:55]  The choices have always been there for them.
[00:21:58]  They choose Donald Trump over the American people, and now they are choosing a power grab over putting this before voters.
[00:22:08]  And so at every turn, we are going to stand firm and together with what the American people are asking from us to see us get us relief in housing prices, groceries, utility bills, restore our health care and help it overhaul this system so I can afford health care where and when I need it and get a government that is working for me, the taxpayer,
[00:22:39]  and is not working for the benefit of a president and his family.
[00:22:46]  This is what the American people are desperate for.

=== Upholding Voting Rights Act (02:46) ===

[00:22:50]  And after their redistricting that they did behind closed doors in Texas, what did we see in the primary?
[00:22:59]  A Democratic turnout that was well over Republican that hasn't happened in decades.
[00:23:06]  It was presidential level turnout.
[00:23:09]  And last night in Virginia, we saw the same turnout of a gubernatorial race with not a single candidate on the ballot, but the idea that our elections should be fair and they should be secure and that our agenda should be focused on the American people.
[00:23:28]  That's why it won.
[00:23:30]  That's why we'll win in November.
[00:23:32]  Michael.
[00:23:32]  Thank you.
[00:23:34]  Supreme Court Louis 2 decisions today.
[00:23:36]  My daughter knows what the Louisiana voting rights case.
[00:23:38]  Are you confident that when the decision does drop, they make it too late for it to have an effect on these maps.
[00:23:44]  Are you all taking continuously for when legislation drops?
[00:23:47]  How do they impact any of the gains that you've made?
[00:23:49]  The right thing for the Supreme Court to do is to uphold Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
[00:23:54]  This is a historic, enduring, bipartisan piece of legislation.
[00:23:59]  The Voting Rights Act is the most important civil rights legislation ever enacted in the history of the country, and it's designed to protect free and fair elections.
[00:24:10]  Just two years ago, Justice Roberts and Justice Kavanaugh upheld Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
[00:24:18]  And for the life of me, I can't figure out why they would do anything different in this instance.
[00:24:24]  Now, I know that some of the far-right justices who are operating in the pocket of the Republican Party are trying to do everything possible to give MAGA extremists an electoral advantage, and we're just not going to let it happen.
[00:24:40]  Whenever the Supreme Court decision comes down, hopefully a majority of the justices do the right thing.
[00:24:48]  But whatever the circumstances are, we are committed to ensuring that there's going to be a free and fair election in November.
[00:24:57]  And when that happens, Democrats will take back control of the House of Representatives.
[00:25:02]  Thanks.
[00:25:03]  How would Democrats respond if the Virginia nonpartisan Supreme Court does ultimately strike down the SCUMAP and find a referendum illegal?
[00:25:10]  The law is with us in Virginia.
[00:25:13]  The facts are with us in Virginia.
[00:25:16]  And the people are with us in Virginia.
[00:25:20]  There's no basis in law or fact for the Virginia Supreme Court under the Constitution that exists, particularly in the aftermath of a people-approved referendum, to do anything other than to allow it to move forward.

=== Florida Seats At Risk (03:32) ===

[00:25:36]  Susan?
[00:25:37]  Okay.
[00:25:39]  Looking into Florida, the state Supreme Court there has shown a willingness to green light already jerked into maps in spite of their fair districts amendment.
[00:25:49]  How confident are you that you will prevail in court should the Republicans enact you out there?
[00:25:55]  Susan?
[00:25:55]  I mean, we know that the governor has talked about ignoring the will of the people.
[00:26:03]  We're going to continue to fight back.
[00:26:04]  And we also know that we have opportunities across Florida to pick up seats.
[00:26:09]  And we will continue to do that.
[00:26:12]  People, again, are tired of what they see the Republican priorities are, not the American people, but basically doing Donald Trump's bidding.
[00:26:20]  And you've seen even in state legislative seats in Florida just huge swings, even more recently, including that legislative seat with Mar-a-Lago in it.
[00:26:31]  A huge swing because people want folks who are going to stand up for them.
[00:26:35]  So I think we have opportunities in Florida and absolutely we're going to fight back every way that we can to make sure that their voices are heard.
[00:26:45]  Our message to Florida Republicans is F around and find out.
[00:26:51]  If they go down the road of a DeSantis dummy mander, the Florida Republicans are going to find themselves in the same situation as Texas Republicans who are on the run right now.
[00:27:04]  And under no circumstances are Texas Republicans picking up five seats.
[00:27:08]  They'll be fortunate if they get two or three.
[00:27:13]  While in California, we are going to get all five.
[00:27:19]  The Republicans are dummy mandering their way into the minority before a single vote is cast because they started this war and we're going to finish it.
[00:27:30]  The electoral tide is turning in Florida.
[00:27:34]  As Chairwoman Del Bene illustrated, we won the Miami mayor's race in December for the first time in almost 30 years by 20 points.
[00:27:46]  And now Eileen Higgins is mayor in a city that's 75% Latino, including Cuban Americans and Venezuelan Americans, amongst some of the more conservative members of the Latino community in the nation.
[00:28:04]  But the city of Miami, for the first time in three decades, broke heavily in our direction.
[00:28:08]  We flipped a seat in Mar-a-Lago of all places when Donald Trump endorsed the Republican candidate and Republicans went all in.
[00:28:18]  And we also won a seat in that same special election last month in central Texas in the Tampa Bay area.
[00:28:31]  The signs are there, which is why there are many Republicans within the congressional delegation who have already publicly said in Florida to their governor and to the White House, it would be a mistake to go into Florida and do a DeSantis dummy mander.
[00:28:50]  We agree, but go ahead and make our day.
[00:28:54]  We are all in in Florida.
[00:28:59]  And it's Republicans who are putting a target on the backs of their own members politically at this moment in time.

=== Virginia Will Finish Fight (13:51) ===

[00:29:08]  Last question.
[00:29:19]  We are in an era of maximum warfare everywhere, all the time.
[00:29:29]  And we're going to keep the pressure on Republicans in every single state in the Union to ensure at the end of the day that there is a fair national map because we believe that it's the people who should decide who's in the majority in the next Congress, not Donald Trump and MAGA extremists.
[00:29:54]  Thank you all.
[00:29:55]  And remarks there by U.S. Watch Democrats following yesterday's redistricting vote in Virginia.
[00:30:10]  Voters in the Commonwealth approved a plan to redraw congressional districts that could add as many as four Democratic seats in this year's midterm elections.
[00:30:19]  Next, reaction from Democratic lawmakers from Virginia.
[00:30:26]  We took this question to people, not the land closed doors, not politicians, to the people.
[00:30:33]  And in a special election, one question, no candidates, millions spent trying to confuse voters.
[00:30:41]  Virginians still showed up.
[00:30:44]  And strong numbers with clear purpose.
[00:30:48]  And they voted yes.
[00:30:50]  Now, let's be honest.
[00:30:51]  This was not an easy fight.
[00:30:54]  This was a marathon to get to this point.
[00:30:58]  There was a lot of misinformation, a lot of noise, a lot of efforts to confuse communities, especially the black voters and working families to which I was took on this because being a civil rights advocate, I've seen this before.
[00:31:18]  But those same communities showed up anyway.
[00:31:21]  They showed up informed, they showed up focused, and they showed up ready.
[00:31:28]  Now, this 10-1 map, yes, 10, I won't say it, one, is about leaving.
[00:31:39]  It's about leveling the plan field for the country.
[00:31:42]  We were not going to let anyone tilt the system without a response.
[00:31:49]  We were going to meet this moment, and we were going to act.
[00:31:53]  And yesterday we did.
[00:31:55]  And let's be clear.
[00:31:58]  This goes beyond Virginia.
[00:32:00]  And what started in Texas didn't stay in Texas.
[00:32:04]  And what started here will not stay here either.
[00:32:08]  Virginia sent a message.
[00:32:10]  If you try to rig the system, we fight back.
[00:32:13]  If you try to take power from voters, we will take it right back.
[00:32:18]  I meant it when I said Virginia will finish the fight.
[00:32:21]  And yesterday we did.
[00:32:23]  And I thank you.
[00:32:29]  So, first off, good morning.
[00:32:33]  The motto of Virginia is six simple tyrannies.
[00:32:36]  Thus always the tyrants.
[00:32:37]  I think we changed it last night.
[00:32:38]  I think it's all we do is win, win, win no matter what.
[00:32:42]  Because we won again.
[00:32:43]  We won in 2025 and we won by a large margin.
[00:32:47]  And then we kicked ass again last night.
[00:32:49]  I think Donald Trump in Madela is watching us right now.
[00:32:53]  If they didn't know us, they know what we're doing.
[00:32:54]  We know now.
[00:32:55]  And, you know, I had the pleasure of his former campaign manager, I think his name is Chris Lasavita or something like that.
[00:33:02]  He retweeted me and said, oh, something about Don Scott.
[00:33:05]  And I said, I know you're mad, because we just win it.
[00:33:07]  And so I would be mad too.
[00:33:08]  But you don't send the junior Barsetti out when you got the Barsidi on the face.
[00:33:12]  You sent out the big players and he should have came out and played with us.
[00:33:16]  So last night, Virginia lived up to his billing of thus always the tyrants.
[00:33:20]  We stand up.
[00:33:22]  We had enough of Trump's chaos, enough of his power.
[00:33:25]  We're after enough of him sending our girls, our men and women in the military to a stupid war.
[00:33:36]  He said no more stupid wars.
[00:33:37]  Well, he's low IQ.
[00:33:38]  This is a stupid war.
[00:33:40]  We have no idea why he went.
[00:33:42]  We have no idea when he's leaving.
[00:33:44]  He doesn't know.
[00:33:45]  Every day he tweets out a different reason on what's happening.
[00:33:48]  And every person who's ever been in the military has wargained the Persian Gulf.
[00:33:54]  And every single time the Iranians shut down the Strait of Canada.
[00:33:58]  And now he said, I didn't know they were going to do this.
[00:34:01]  Well, what the hell happened?
[00:34:02]  Look, every person in the military who's ever studied that area knows this.
[00:34:06]  And so Virginia said, enough.
[00:34:07]  We are a state that has a huge military presence.
[00:34:11]  And we came out yesterday.
[00:34:12]  Now, we know there are going to be votes who said, hey, this is a close election.
[00:34:18]  But I think Virginians chose fascism over fear.
[00:34:21]  They chose truth over the misinformation and democracy over political games.
[00:34:28]  And they spent a lot of energy trying to trick black voters.
[00:34:32]  But who showed up?
[00:34:33]  Who made it happen last night?
[00:34:34]  Black voters showed up.
[00:34:36]  Hispanic voters showed up.
[00:34:38]  Communities that Republicans tried to mislead, that they targeted to mislead and suppress, showed up and made their voices heard.
[00:34:48]  And guess what?
[00:34:49]  They not only voted yes, but they voted hell yes.
[00:34:54]  Republicans poured tens of millions of dollars, almost $40 million, into this race.
[00:35:00]  Much of it in the final weeks, flooding the airways with misinformation, targeting our communities and trying to confuse voters.
[00:35:07]  And they still lost.
[00:35:11]  If you spend that kind of money and lose, that's not a close call.
[00:35:14]  It's a rejection.
[00:35:16]  Everybody's talking about this was never about the maps or anything like that.
[00:35:20]  This is about standing up to matching Donald Trump.
[00:35:22]  That's what the referendum was on.
[00:35:24]  It was a referendum on do you want to continue to see your gas prices go up to $45 a gallon?
[00:35:30]  Do you want to see houses unaffordable?
[00:35:32]  Do you want to get grocery prices over the top?
[00:35:35]  Or do you want to bring some stability back to America?
[00:35:38]  That's what the election was about last night.
[00:35:40]  And it was a rejection of its methods.
[00:35:42]  A rejection of MAGA's tactics.
[00:35:44]  and of the rejection of all of the things they stand for.
[00:35:47]  And by the way, release the damn Epstein files.
[00:35:51]  They campaigned on bad, but the moment voters rejected them, moments after they lost last night, the first thing they said is, oh, we don't want bad no more.
[00:36:00]  We want to go to court.
[00:36:01]  First thing they do, when they can't win an election, now they're trying to undo it and they're running to the courthouse for a frivolous, politically motivated attempt to overturn the will of the voters.
[00:36:12]  The last thing Republicans want to see in Virginia is a voter.
[00:36:16]  But let me say this clearly.
[00:36:17]  In Virginia, we respect the will of the voters.
[00:36:21]  In Virginia, we don't do kings.
[00:36:24]  In Virginia, the power belongs to the people.
[00:36:27]  Six simple tyrannies.
[00:36:29]  Last night, Virginia stood up.
[00:36:30]  Virginia fought back.
[00:36:32]  And once again, Virginia led the way for our democracy.
[00:36:36]  Yes.
[00:36:41]  Reference still in court to try to be the Supreme Court.
[00:36:44]  How confident are you that the court's going to hold out the referendum outcome?
[00:36:47]  And in case they do not, is there a contingency crime for you guys?
[00:36:52]  All I can say is what happened, but yet they need to stay there.
[00:36:55]  And somebody needs to say it.
[00:36:56]  We're never going to speak on what a judge or a jury is going to do, Common Lawyer.
[00:37:00]  So we're going to let the court system play itself out.
[00:37:02]  Just like we abide by the will of the voters, we have to abide by the will of whatever court.
[00:37:06]  We're going to follow the rule of law here in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
[00:37:09]  That's what we've always done.
[00:37:10]  Unlike President Trump, he had one of his minions go before a congressional hearing in the Senate to be confirmed as the chair of the Fed.
[00:37:19]  And this man still would not admit that Joe Biden won in 2020.
[00:37:23]  You know why?
[00:37:24]  Because he knows that the minute he says that Joe Biden won, Trump will remove him.
[00:37:27]  That is what Maggot Republicans have become.
[00:37:30]  They are a cult.
[00:37:31]  They don't care that this man is sending out men and women to war for no, for a dumb war, for a dumb reason.
[00:37:37]  We still don't know what the threat was from Iran that wasn't there for the whole time that he's been there in 2016 till now.
[00:37:43]  And so I think we don't need to worry about the Supreme Court.
[00:37:46]  The voters last night spoke and we're going to abide by the court.
[00:37:49]  Do you have a message for AC Cordosis?
[00:37:51]  Absolutely not.
[00:37:52]  A.C. Corboja?
[00:37:55]  The JB team, man.
[00:37:56]  They said that the JB team, he tried to misread lead his own community.
[00:37:59]  And so, no, he's got to deal with that calm.
[00:38:02]  You know what happened.
[00:38:03]  And they keep sending out these people that lose every time.
[00:38:05]  Jason Harris, he just took a L. Why y'all going to print out a two dollar for fresh L to try to vote against Senator Lucas?
[00:38:11]  Come on, now stop playing.
[00:38:13]  Y'all going to bring it back up because every time I see Jason Harris show up, I feel very good.
[00:38:18]  Senator Lucas, I wonder if, given the history of redistricting in favor of Republicans in 2001, if you feel at all kind of personally vindicated.
[00:38:27]  I feel vindicated.
[00:38:28]  I'm going to let that war go now.
[00:38:30]  I just got to make sure we go out and win these seats in November.
[00:38:34]  And if I happen to be the poster child of that, I got a pair of soft walking shoes that will get us through this.
[00:38:44]  So I think she won't say it, but pay back your bitch.
[00:38:46]  Look at this.
[00:38:49]  So we've been in sort of like six months of legislating and court cases and campaigning and all these things.
[00:38:54]  I think that the governor wasn't, it didn't seem like she was all in for many months.
[00:38:59]  And now we're seeing her sort of talk about this.
[00:39:02]  She was on NSNOW last night.
[00:39:05]  I guess, how do you feel about, you know, kind of being on the front of this effort and then having the governor come in maybe later with more enthusiastic support?
[00:39:17]  Well, you know, some people say better date than nothing.
[00:39:20]  Can I leave it right there?
[00:39:22]  It always gets more, I guess.
[00:39:24]  How will we later?
[00:39:25]  Success has many falls.
[00:39:27]  Failure not been offered.
[00:39:29]  I think we needed everybody to be on board.
[00:39:31]  I think the governor did what she needed to do to help us build a child.
[00:39:34]  We're grateful to her.
[00:39:35]  We're grateful to Gavin Newsome.
[00:39:36]  We're grateful to the Texas delegates for standing up.
[00:39:38]  We're grateful to Hakeem Jeffries, who did a great job in leading and making sure that we got the funding.
[00:39:43]  He helped through fundraising.
[00:39:45]  I mean, we're grateful to our congressional delegation.
[00:39:47]  Everybody played their role at different levels, and the governor played a huge part of making us win.
[00:39:52]  But at the end of the day, the largest role belongs to the champions here.
[00:39:56]  No, no, the championship.
[00:39:58]  And the voters did what they needed to do because they believed.
[00:40:02]  They believed.
[00:40:03]  They believed it was time to stand up.
[00:40:04]  We talk about Democrats every single time not being able to stand up when the moment requires it.
[00:40:12]  But these, us too, we knew, and our caucuses believed in us.
[00:40:17]  Because, you know, we had to get this whole cross-up across the finish line.
[00:40:20]  And our caucus believed in us, and we said we can get this done, and we got it done.
[00:40:25]  And there are always people who are going to be next to us.
[00:40:28]  We know that was close because there are some Democrats, some squishy, bedwedding Democrats who they don't want to, you know, they claim, oh, well, I don't like Jerry Manner.
[00:40:37]  This is not about Jerry Manny.
[00:40:39]  We have a God sending our men and women into war.
[00:40:41]  We have a person that is stealing trillions of dollars from the American economy each day because of these gas prices and these grocery prices and transferring that wealth out of our families' homes to foreign nations.
[00:40:52]  That is what he is doing and we're going to stand up to that.
[00:40:55]  And what people need to remember is that this is temporary.
[00:40:59]  We were never for a gerrymandering.
[00:41:04]  We voted for the non-Protestant Redistricting Commission.
[00:41:08]  But Donald Trump and his power wave to try to maintain unchecked control of the Congress is why we're here right now.
[00:41:18]  And when the Texas delegation got to Boston and we found out what was going on, hell yeah, we're in this fight and we're going to have more winning.
[00:41:26]  All right, we got time for like one or two more.
[00:41:30]  You've got a couple more in you.
[00:41:31]  Who are you from?
[00:41:32]  Who are you from?
[00:41:33]  You famously, sir.
[00:41:35]  Budget, you guys feeling better?
[00:41:37]  We have something on the calendar tomorrow now.
[00:41:39]  No white smoke.
[00:41:42]  Joe.
[00:41:42]  We'll have a budget.
[00:41:45]  We're going to be quiet in that.
[00:41:47]  Am I right?
[00:41:48]  Did last night's win change the conversation around the budget?
[00:41:52]  Did the redistricting impact the budget at all?
[00:41:54]  Remains to be seen.
[00:41:55]  Conversation is going to go on.
[00:41:57]  What can other states learn from Virginia after this running success from the Democrats?
[00:42:01]  You can't be cowards.
[00:42:02]  You've got to fight.
[00:42:05]  You can't win a victory sitting on the sidelines where all those folks out there were saying, well, we don't want to get into this fight.
[00:42:11]  They're the ones who are going to need to lose it.
[00:42:13]  We missed it.
[00:42:14]  She and I, this is one of the lessons.
[00:42:17]  Senator has a very humble background in the beginning.
[00:42:21]  I didn't sue.
[00:42:21]  Some of y'all know that.
[00:42:23]  The people that they thought that they could kick to the curb and that would never be in this position, guess what?
[00:42:28]  How you like us now?
[00:42:29]  That's right.
[00:42:30]  And you cannot, you know, we miss that whole class on when they go go, you go high.
[00:42:36]  We missed that class.
[00:42:37]  When they go low, we're going to go down there and kick their mother laugh.
[00:42:39]  That's right.
[00:42:40]  And guess what?
[00:42:41]  And the one who kicked you in the ass ain't going to be the same one who punched you in the face.
[00:42:44]  But one moment won't be on one side and one won't be on the other.
[00:42:47]  We're going to leave this.
[00:42:49]  Finish watching with the free C-SPAN Now mobile app as we take you back to the House floor for work on several bills, including one repealing certain required federal building energy efficiency standard.