CSPAN - Public Affairs Events
Aired: 2026-04-27
Duration: 32:59


=== Bridging America's Political Divide (04:34) ===

[00:00:00]  Tuesday morning on C-SPAN, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, or online at C-SPAN.org.
[00:00:09]  King Charles and Queen Camilla are in the United States this week for a state visit.
[00:00:13]  Tuesday, the King will address a joint session of Congress at 3 p.m. Eastern.
[00:00:18]  Later at 7 p.m. Eastern, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will host the royal couple for a state dinner at the White House.
[00:00:25]  The visit also includes stops in New York and Virginia, where they'll attend a block party celebrating America's 250th birthday.
[00:00:32]  Watch live coverage of the Royal State visit all this week on the C-SPAN networks.
[00:00:38]  On Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chair General Dan Kaine testify on the Defense Department's 2027 budget request.
[00:00:47]  This is their first public hearing on Capitol Hill since the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran started on February 28th.
[00:00:53]  From the House Armed Services Committee, watch the hearing live at 10 a.m. Eastern on C-SPAN 3, C-SPAN Now, our free mobile app, and c-span.org.
[00:01:06]  Best ideas and best practices can be found anywhere.
[00:01:09]  We have to listen so we can govern better.
[00:01:11]  Democracy depends on heavy doses of civility.
[00:01:14]  You can fight and still be friendly.
[00:01:16]  Bridging the divide in American politics.
[00:01:19]  You know, you may not agree with Le Democrat on everything, but you can find areas where you do agree.
[00:01:22]  He's a pretty likable guy as well.
[00:01:24]  Chris Kins and I are actually friends.
[00:01:25]  He votes wrong all the time, but we're actually friends.
[00:01:28]  A horrible secret that Scott and I have is that we actually respect each other.
[00:01:31]  We all don't hate each other.
[00:01:33]  You two actually kind of like each other.
[00:01:35]  These are the kinds of secrets we'd like to expose.
[00:01:37]  It's nice to be with a member who knows what they're talking about.
[00:01:40]  You guys did agree to the civility, all right?
[00:01:42]  He owes my son $10 from a bed.
[00:01:45]  I never paid for it.
[00:01:46]  I'll fork it over.
[00:01:48]  Fighting words right there.
[00:01:49]  I'm glad I'm not in charge.
[00:01:51]  I'm thrilled to be on the show with him.
[00:01:52]  There are not shows like this, right?
[00:01:54]  Incentivizing that relationship.
[00:01:57]  Ceasefire Friday nights on C-SPAN.
[00:02:05]  Welcome to today's Washington Journal.
[00:02:07]  We will get to your calls shortly, but first take a look at what President Trump said.
[00:02:11]  He was interviewed on CBS's 60 Minutes.
[00:02:14]  This is what he said about political violence.
[00:02:17]  Also at the dinner last night was your Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
[00:02:22]  His sister, Carrie Kennedy, was there.
[00:02:25]  They've both witnessed their father and their uncle be assassinated.
[00:02:30]  Erica Kirk was there.
[00:02:32]  The House Majority Leader, Steve Scalise, was there.
[00:02:36]  Political violence has touched so many people in that room.
[00:02:41]  Is there something that you as president can do?
[00:02:44]  What can be done to change the trajectory?
[00:02:47]  You know, you go back 20 years, 40 years, 100 years, 200 years, 500 years.
[00:02:56]  It's always been there.
[00:02:58]  People are assassinated.
[00:03:00]  People are injured.
[00:03:02]  People are hurt.
[00:03:03]  And I'm not sure that it's any more now than there was.
[00:03:06]  I do think that the hate speech of the Democrats, much more so, is very dangerous.
[00:03:11]  I really think it's very dangerous to the country.
[00:03:15]  That was the president yesterday on 60 Minutes, and we are taking your calls this morning.
[00:03:20]  Take a look at this poll from PRRI, and this is what it asked.
[00:03:28]  So it says this, two-thirds of Americans, 67%, believe political leaders' failure to condemn violent rhetoric contributes a lot to violent actions in society.
[00:03:39]  So here are the top lines.
[00:03:40]  It says majorities of Americans also believe that false or misleading information generated by AI at 64% and public displays of hate symbols at 61% contribute a lot to violent actions in society, while smaller majorities believe easy access to guns and harsh and violent political language are also drivers.
[00:04:03]  That's at 53%.
[00:04:06]  While 51% of Republicans believe public displays of hate symbols contribute a lot to violence, 76% of Democrats do.
[00:04:14]  Fewer than half of Republicans, that's at 46%, believe that harsh and violent political language contributes a lot to violence in society.
[00:04:22]  White evangelical Protestants are the only group of religious Americans in which a minority, 47%, share that view.
[00:04:30]  We'll look more at that poll this morning.

=== Burlington Mayor on Polarization (02:14) ===

[00:04:34]  We'll take a call first from Timothy in Vermont.
[00:04:37]  Democrat, you're on the air.
[00:04:40]  Yes.
[00:04:40]  All right.
[00:04:40]  Good morning.
[00:04:41]  Good morning.
[00:04:44]  Regarding political violence, I mean, from what I can ascertain, this administration has done whatever they can do to pretty much divide and conquer.
[00:05:03]  It's funny.
[00:05:04]  I remember, so I'm from Burlington, Vermont, and the man that preceded Bernie, and this is relevant.
[00:05:14]  I'm not digressing.
[00:05:18]  And Bernie won that election in Burlington by 10 votes, 1980.
[00:05:23]  But anyway, a guy I went to high school with, his name is Doug Killery.
[00:05:31]  Ironically, that's the truth.
[00:05:34]  Mayor Gordon Pauquet was mayor of Burlington.
[00:05:38]  And Doug popped a few shots up at this bar called Nectars, where the mayor was having breakfast.
[00:05:51]  And Doug didn't like Mayor Gordon Pauquet for whatever reason.
[00:05:59]  But all I'm saying is that the divide and conquer concept is very much alive and well.
[00:06:10]  And the polarity is beyond polarizing.
[00:06:18]  So, and what do you think needs to be done about it?
[00:06:21]  I try to have a normal discourse with my friends.
[00:06:25]  I mean, I'm a left-leaning Democrat.
[00:06:28]  My grandfather was mayor of St. Albans, which is North about 50 miles of.
[00:06:36]  I've always been a Democrat.
[00:06:38]  All right.
[00:06:39]  Always.
[00:06:39]  Well, Timothy, let's hear what other people think.
[00:06:41]  Here's David in Riverside, California, Republican.
[00:06:44]  Go ahead, David.
[00:06:46]  Good morning, Mimi, and good morning, America.

=== Beyond Left-Wing Violence (15:52) ===

[00:06:49]  The guy at the correspondence dinner trying to kill Trump for his cabinet members is a good example that there are a lot of people in America who do not understand why we're at war with Iran.
[00:06:58]  We need more education.
[00:07:00]  Some people think President Trump is the enemy or the Jews.
[00:07:03]  No, my friend, you just don't understand what's at stake.
[00:07:06]  We dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
[00:07:09]  That was 80 years ago.
[00:07:11]  And nobody really remembers it.
[00:07:12]  But the same nuclear bombs that were dropped still exist.
[00:07:15]  And much more powerful ones called thermonuclear bombs, which are 500 to 1,000 times stronger than the ones dropped on Japan.
[00:07:22]  President Trump is trying to protect us from that.
[00:07:24]  We're going to leave this to take you live to the U.S. Capitol for an announcement about the construction of the White House Ballroom.
[00:07:30]  The chair of the Senate Budget Committee, Lindsey Graham, and the chair of the Homeland Security Spending Panel, Katie Britt, will be speaking.
[00:07:37]  America has a problem and we intend to fix it.
[00:07:41]  That problem is it's very difficult to have a bunch of important people in the same place unless it's really, really secure.
[00:07:51]  The times in which we live are unusual.
[00:07:53]  I've been up here for a while now.
[00:07:56]  I've never felt the sense of threat that exists today.
[00:08:00]  There's so much out there.
[00:08:02]  There's so many disturbed people that are just one click away from feeling like they've got to fix America by killing somebody.
[00:08:11]  And when the president, the vice president, the speaker of the house, most of the cabinet meets at the same time, those should be seldom but very secure.
[00:08:22]  And the ballroom.
[00:08:25]  Many people, I think, originally saw it as a vanity project that President Trump wanted to build this grand ballroom as kind of a vanity project.
[00:08:36]  I don't see it that way, and I don't think he ever did.
[00:08:38]  A meeting space that is secured on the White House grounds that would allow people to do what they did at the Hilton Hotel is necessary.
[00:08:52]  I'm convinced if there had been a presidential ballroom adjacent to the White House, the guy would have never gotten in.
[00:09:00]  Agreed.
[00:09:02]  You had an event with the line of succession in a ballroom where a thousand people were in a hotel above it.
[00:09:12]  This guy apparently checked in the night before and was able to get shotguns and pistols and knives and made a rush for the ballroom door and thank God he didn't make it.
[00:09:23]  I want to thank the Secret Service and all who stopped him, but if this is not a wake-up call, who would be?
[00:09:31]  So here's what we're going to do.
[00:09:32]  We're going to introduce legislation that would authorize $400 million to be spent to secure the president to build the presidential ballroom.
[00:09:43]  Underneath there will be a lot of military stuff.
[00:09:46]  There will be a Secret Service annex and we've paid for it by offsetting it with custom fees.
[00:09:54]  But the estimate is $332 million.
[00:09:57]  We're going to do $400 million because I think it's probably going to take more.
[00:10:01]  Private donations can be used, but I think they should be used for buying China and stuff like that.
[00:10:08]  Underneath this ballroom will be infrastructure that is national security centric.
[00:10:13]  The ballroom itself will avoid the dilemma of having to leave the White House grounds with future presidents and this presidents to go downtown in a place that's less secure.
[00:10:25]  President Trump said to me this morning, excuse me, yesterday, we need the ballroom not just for me but for future presidents.
[00:10:34]  He literally could have left his bedroom, walked out the back of the White House, and been at the ballroom.
[00:10:42]  That's what needs to happen when you have 1,000 or 2,000 people gathered in Day's environment.
[00:10:50]  And the sooner we get the ballroom built, the more hardened it is, the better for the country.
[00:10:57]  So I hope and pray that most people in the Senate after Saturday night will support this bill.
[00:11:05]  This is not about Trump.
[00:11:07]  It's about the presidency of the United States.
[00:11:10]  It's about the person who occupies that office not being put at risk if they choose to go off campus.
[00:11:18]  And the Washington Press Corps, the Correspondents Association, should be very proud of the fact that so many people wanted to come and participate at the highest level of government.
[00:11:31]  Literally, you had the entire line of succession in one place.
[00:11:36]  You had a large amount of cabinet members.
[00:11:39]  Only God knows what would have happened if he'd gotten in the room.
[00:11:43]  What if it had been three?
[00:11:44]  What if it had been five?
[00:11:47]  I honestly believe the likelihood of that happening if we had a secure facility attached to the White House would go down exponentially.
[00:11:58]  So we're reacting to a problem that's been identified.
[00:12:02]  And if you had any doubt, it was a problem, Saturday should resolve all doubt.
[00:12:08]  So we're going to press ahead.
[00:12:10]  I'm going to ask for Senator Thune to expedite this bill.
[00:12:13]  Senator Fetterman's on board, and I'd like to vote as soon as possible to accelerate what America needs, a secure facility for the President and others to meet in, to have a good time, to enjoy themselves, without putting the nation at risk.
[00:12:31]  We don't have that.
[00:12:32]  We're about to obtain it.
[00:12:34]  And the ballroom is much more than just a place to entertain.
[00:12:38]  There'll be infrastructure around it vital to our national security.
[00:12:41]  And that's why we've done $400 million.
[00:12:43]  Senator Britt.
[00:12:46]  Thank you, Senator Graham.
[00:12:48]  Look, this weekend, a third assassination attempt on President Trump is truly unconscionable.
[00:12:56]  When you're thinking about where we are as a nation and what it means going forward, we have to be smarter, we have to be more vigilant, and we have to be more prepared.
[00:13:06]  Being more prepared means having a facility like this ballroom where we can have secure location for the President of the United States, amongst other cabinet officials, to gather and to be together.
[00:13:19]  Look, I don't understand why it is that every idea, it doesn't matter if on its face is good or not, Democrats choose to oppose it if it has anything to do with Donald Trump.
[00:13:35]  If Donald Trump comes up with it, then it must be a bad idea.
[00:13:38]  And inherent in them at this very moment is they have to object to it.
[00:13:43]  Look, this isn't even about him.
[00:13:46]  This will not be done until the end of his term.
[00:13:50]  This is about future presidents.
[00:13:53]  This is about our nation having a place to gather where the president of the United States of America can be a part of it.
[00:14:00]  This is about presidents both now and in the future.
[00:14:04]  And I hope my Democratic colleagues will come to their senses.
[00:14:07]  Unfortunately, we continue to see them buy into the fact that they can't do anything with Republicans right now because it will be seen as an advancement of Donald Trump's agenda.
[00:14:17]  This is an advancement for America.
[00:14:19]  It's a great idea by our president that we need to see through.
[00:14:23]  I mean, when you think about what's happening right now, when you think about the litigation, the woman who was given standing, she was given standing actually because of aesthetic injury, because it disturbed her morning walk to walk past the ballroom.
[00:14:39]  I mean, ridiculous, guys.
[00:14:42]  President Trump was smart to ask for this.
[00:14:45]  And now is the time for us to step up and actually move it forward.
[00:14:49]  And in addition to this, I hope this is a wake-up call about DHS funding.
[00:14:53]  I mean, y'all, we're 72 days without a department funded.
[00:14:58]  Many of you know this, and some of you have brought light to it.
[00:15:02]  But when you're looking at DHS funding and looking at when we run out of money, when we can stop paying people, you know that that time is coming.
[00:15:12]  I think it is absolutely ridiculous that we will have members of Congress that are going to fly off to other nations while our Homeland Security is unfunded.
[00:15:23]  We have a real obligation both to the people of this country to have a secure border and to have safe streets and also to the people who stepped up, raised their hand to serve our nation and the Department of Homeland Security to keep Americans safe to actually ensure that they get a paycheck.
[00:15:40]  You think about the men and women of the Secret Service, you think about the mission of the Secret Service.
[00:15:44]  It has gone unfunded for 72 days, and it is absolutely ridiculous.
[00:15:50]  Now is the time to act.
[00:15:53]  I am hopeful, and you will hear more of this from Senator Schmidt, but now is the time for Democrats to step forward and to figure out what a pathway forward looks like and to realize we have to put the good of the nation in front and center.
[00:16:09]  And whether it is this ballroom or it is funding DHS, now is the time to act.
[00:16:13]  Senator Schmidt.
[00:16:15]  Thank you.
[00:16:15]  And I stand with my colleagues to support this facility for the President of the United States to be able to gather with other world leaders, his cabinet, in a safe and secure place.
[00:16:25]  This is, I can't, I actually can't believe we're having to even talk or debate about this.
[00:16:29]  Other presidents have talked about it, but again, I think it's a symptom of Trump derangement syndrome that the Democrats have balked at this.
[00:16:35]  Secondly, I agree with Senator Britt.
[00:16:37]  This DHS funding thing is just, I mean, it's a scandal.
[00:16:41]  In any other time and place, this would be a total scandal.
[00:16:45]  But here we are, and we're going to solve it one way or another through reconciliation or otherwise.
[00:16:50]  But I just think it's worth kind of stepping back for just a moment.
[00:16:56]  President Trump, there have been attempts on his life now three times in the last two years.
[00:17:02]  He came within an inch of his life in Butler at his own golf course intergram, and I played with the president there on a par three course.
[00:17:12]  He's a whole way.
[00:17:13]  If it wasn't for a Secret Service agent spotting the glistening of the sun off the barrel of a rifle that just happened to come across the fence line, that assassination would have been televised on a GoPro.
[00:17:26]  And then this past Saturday, I think the left has a real assassination culture problem right now.
[00:17:36]  And we better start talking about it and we better start resolving it.
[00:17:40]  The Luigi left here, this is serious business.
[00:17:46]  And I don't see my Democrat colleagues trying to tone it down.
[00:17:52]  Hakeem Jeffries, literally within the last hour, just said he stands by his comments for, quote, maximum warfare everywhere all the time in this kind of phony tough guy thing he's trying to pull off to take the House majority.
[00:18:06]  It looks ridiculous.
[00:18:08]  And that's not what we need right now, but I think we have to be clear about what's happening.
[00:18:11]  25% of those who describe themselves as very liberal believe political violence is legitimate, compared to 3% of people who identify as very conservative.
[00:18:23]  That's 3% too many.
[00:18:25]  But let's not pretend it's the same thing.
[00:18:27]  Let's also not pretend that it's not a serious problem that 55% of those on the left believe it is at least Somewhat justified to assassinate President Trump.
[00:18:41]  This is not a both sides thing.
[00:18:43]  And I know it's going to be characterized, this is a problem uniquely on the left right now.
[00:18:48]  The man who tried to kill Republican congressmen at the congressional baseball practice, nearly killing Steve's Khalist, that was left-wing violence.
[00:18:56]  Burned down cities in the Summer of Love and the George Floyd riots, left-wing violence.
[00:19:01]  The Waukesha Christmas Parade massacre, left-wing violence.
[00:19:04]  The Lee Zeldon stabbing attempt, left-wing violence.
[00:19:06]  The Covenant School shooting in Nashville, left-wing violence.
[00:19:09]  The Butler, Pennsylvania Trump assassination attempt, left-wing violence.
[00:19:13]  The Trump International West Palm assassination attempt, left-wing violence, the Abundant Life Christian School shooting, left-wing violence.
[00:19:20]  The United Healthcare CEO murder, left-wing violence.
[00:19:23]  Tesla's burned, keys, damp-keyed, and damaged, left-wing violence.
[00:19:28]  The murders at the Israeli embassy, left-wing violence.
[00:19:31]  The Minneapolis Catholic school shooting, left-wing violence.
[00:19:34]  The anti-white Charlotte, North Carolina stabbing, left-wing violence.
[00:19:38]  The attempted Utah News State firebombing, left-wing violence.
[00:19:41]  The assassination of Charlie Kirk, left-wing violence.
[00:19:44]  ICE facilities firebombed, left-wing violence.
[00:19:49]  A 1,300% increase in attacks on ICE agents, left-wing violence, and now a third attempt on President Trump's life.
[00:19:57]  I think there needs to be full accounting of whether or not the NGO network had anything to do with this.
[00:20:02]  But I will tell you in this manifesto, the language used by this guy sounds like something you'd hear from a pundit on MSNBC every single night.
[00:20:12]  We've heard years of people, right-wing fascists, extreme mega-Republicans, Nazis, Hitler, knock it off.
[00:20:24]  Stop trying to kill our president.
[00:20:28]  And I would hope that these so-called Democrat leaders could find it in their souls to actually be explicit about it, not doubling down like Hakeem Jeffries just did in the last hour.
[00:20:45]  Questions?
[00:20:46]  No one's arguing against reevaluating some of the security around the Correspondence Center, but that was a private event at a private location from a private organization.
[00:20:55]  It's not held by the White House and had twice as many guests as this proposed ballroom would hold.
[00:21:00]  So why do you find it appropriate to link these two events so closely?
[00:21:03]  Well, I find it appropriate if you're going to have the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, the Speaker of the House, and half the cabinet in a room, the room matters.
[00:21:14]  And the idea that you can't do this in the ballroom will be up to the Correspondence Association.
[00:21:21]  It is insane to do this again.
[00:21:24]  Anybody who suggests that we have an event like this in the times in which we live in a facility like Hilton, that's crazy.
[00:21:35]  We're going to have to accommodate the times in which we live.
[00:21:38]  And Eric, you nailed it.
[00:21:40]  There are people out there that are nuts being driven to take up violence is an acceptable outcome in too many people's opinion.
[00:21:51]  So no, we're going to build this facility.
[00:21:54]  And I would suggest to the next president, don't go to the Hilton.
[00:21:59]  Don't do an event at the Hilton or any other facility outside the White House, given the times in which we live.
[00:22:07]  The problem is you don't have a choice.
[00:22:09]  We're going to give people that choice.
[00:22:11]  And if you want to vote no, vote no.
[00:22:14]  I want you to go home and tell the American people why you take off the table an option to have a thousand or two people come to the White House grounds, the safest place we can find, to enjoy themselves.
[00:22:28]  And underneath, there will be things that are not about enjoyment, but about national security.
[00:22:33]  There'll be a Secret Service annex to it.
[00:22:37]  So the need is real.

=== Funding National Security Events (10:17) ===

[00:22:41]  Senator Graham, Senator Britton, can you talk about how the DHS funding shutdown is affecting Secret Service and protection of President Trump?
[00:22:49]  And given the threats facing the president, should the House pick up and pass this Senate-passed bill to fund as much of DHS as possible?
[00:22:57]  I'd like to get it funded.
[00:22:59]  I'd like to do reconciliation for ICE and Border Patrol.
[00:23:04]  The bottom line here is, yes, what's it like?
[00:23:06]  I don't know, what's it like to go to work and not get paid?
[00:23:08]  I don't think this is a pleasant experience.
[00:23:11]  So the idea that we're not funding the Secret Service is pretty astonishing when you think about it.
[00:23:19]  But the Border Patrol, too.
[00:23:22]  What about ICE?
[00:23:23]  I think ICE should be funded.
[00:23:24]  Don't you think the Border Patrol should be funded?
[00:23:27]  I mean, I think all of it should be funded.
[00:23:29]  So yes, I hope the House will pass the Senate bill and we'll do reconciliation.
[00:23:33]  Yeah, I mean, you think about this.
[00:23:35]  I mean, you've got ICE, you've got CBP.
[00:23:39]  I mean, we've heard a number of Americans that have lost their lives at the hands of illegal aliens, and then you have actual Democrats who are refusing to fund those things.
[00:23:51]  It's mind-boggling.
[00:23:53]  You've got CISA at a time where we know that that is, you know, we have heightened security concerns here on our interior from what's happening in the Middle East and then also what we're seeing right here today.
[00:24:06]  You know, you've got TSA, which every American has seen right there front and center.
[00:24:10]  You've got Coast Guard that literally protects our homeland.
[00:24:14]  I mean, you've got all kinds of things and Secret Service being chief among those.
[00:24:19]  I mean, for 72 days, they have gone without their mission being funded.
[00:24:23]  That's a problem.
[00:24:24]  It's absolutely a problem.
[00:24:26]  When you look at the financial insecurity of these individuals, can you imagine all of you who are writing and have a responsibility, obviously, to tell this story to the American people if for half of this fiscal year you hadn't received a paycheck?
[00:24:39]  Half.
[00:24:41]  I think it is ridiculous that people are planning to walk out of here on Thursday or Friday of this week, some of which are going to fly on taxpayer dimes to another country.
[00:24:51]  Those flights should be grounded.
[00:24:54]  We should be here.
[00:24:55]  We should figure this out.
[00:24:56]  These people should get a paycheck.
[00:24:58]  This mission should be funded.
[00:25:00]  You look at what Secretary Mullen inherited.
[00:25:03]  I mean, he inherited an entire department with his hands tied behind his back.
[00:25:07]  He's doing a remarkable job.
[00:25:08]  And I know Mark Wayne will continue to meet the challenge in front of him.
[00:25:12]  But guys, the very least we can do is actually fund the mission that is before us.
[00:25:17]  We saw the importance of that this weekend.
[00:25:19]  I think people need to get it together.
[00:25:22]  We need to make this happen, and we need to make it happen this week.
[00:25:25]  Let me tie, real quick.
[00:25:26]  Let me tie one electrical cord to the question to what we're talking about today.
[00:25:30]  Why are we here?
[00:25:32]  The Democrats have used rhetoric referring to ICE agents as the Gestapo Trump secret police.
[00:25:39]  They can't help themselves.
[00:25:41]  Like, this is a real sickness.
[00:25:44]  And what we're saying is this has to be addressed.
[00:25:46]  At a minimum, we have to have a safe place to protect the President of the United States and the cabinet officials if they want to gather, or there's a state dinner, or a crowd more than like 100 people.
[00:25:55]  But this is now, in order to appease the more radicalized base, the language that comes out on the Senate floor, I'm not talking about on like Morning Joe, like on the Senate floor.
[00:26:09]  You guys are there, you hear this.
[00:26:11]  This is well beyond what has been acceptable forever.
[00:26:16]  And we're at where we're at.
[00:26:19]  And you all remember, this stuff was operating.
[00:26:21]  I mean, ICE and CBP are operating.
[00:26:24]  And the fact that Democrats didn't sit down until 48 days into the shutdown means that they could care nothing about the guardrails.
[00:26:31]  To Senator Schmidt's point, it was everything about the political issue.
[00:26:34]  They didn't want to take a vote for ICE.
[00:26:36]  I mean, it's insane where we are, and it's got to stop.
[00:26:39]  Senator Graham, as budget chairman, there are some House members who, after this event happened, suggested adding the ballroom to the reconciliation package, but that might potentially cause problems over here.
[00:26:56]  I would like to take it to the floor and see if we can, again, it's supposed to be built in 28.
[00:27:02]  It's actually going to benefit future presidents more than President Trump.
[00:27:08]  If the Democrats don't come forward the next day or so and they still sound like they're clocking you.
[00:27:12]  Well, I don't know.
[00:27:13]  I'd like to.
[00:27:14]  Are you open to adding into reconciliation?
[00:27:15]  I want to get it done.
[00:27:16]  Yeah, I want to get it done yesterday.
[00:27:19]  And I'd like to do it as a freestanding bill with an offset.
[00:27:23]  Let's give it a chance.
[00:27:25]  And if we fail, we'll have to go to Plan B. Senator, some of your fellow Republicans have said taxpayers should not have to flip the bill up to this ballroom, that the president should be able to raise private money to fund it.
[00:27:35]  I disagree with them.
[00:27:36]  We're going to vote no.
[00:27:37]  Vote no.
[00:27:38]  Just vote no.
[00:27:39]  This is what I like about voting.
[00:27:41]  If you don't think $400 million of taxpayer money is a good investment to create a secure facility at the White House where the President of the United States, the Vice President, the Cabinet, and people from the public can come and have a meal and gather without what happened Saturday, then I disagree.
[00:28:01]  This is the number one job of the federal government is national security.
[00:28:05]  The number one job of national security, I think, would be to protect the commander-in-chief and to have infrastructure under the ballroom that is very national security-centric.
[00:28:15]  So I don't think, just vote no.
[00:28:18]  That's all I ask you to do is vote.
[00:28:20]  I don't care how you vote.
[00:28:22]  I want to vote.
[00:28:23]  I want to see where is America on this.
[00:28:26]  I'll bet you 90% of the people would love to have a better facility than the Hilton Hotel to make sure this crap never happens again.
[00:28:35]  I can't tell you what to say on the Senate floor, but I've never seen it like this.
[00:28:39]  There are people out there just one click away from picking up a gun or something else and trying to make America better by killing.
[00:28:48]  You don't make America great by killing people you don't like.
[00:28:52]  That's not how you make America great.
[00:28:54]  How you make America great?
[00:28:56]  Go to the ballot box and beat the people you don't like.
[00:29:00]  Engage in political discourse.
[00:29:02]  Organize, give money, knock on doors, beat them at the election, at the ballot box.
[00:29:08]  That's what we need to get back to.
[00:29:11]  This is not a third world country.
[00:29:14]  This is not a country where you change hands by bullets.
[00:29:17]  You change hands by ballots.
[00:29:19]  And we want to secure those ballots.
[00:29:25]  And I think part of the genius of Senator Graham's bill is this actually allows a mechanism, which doesn't exist in current law, for those private donations to be deployed for this purpose.
[00:29:35]  And also, as far as any other dollars that could be used, if that's not enough, it's an extension of user fees at national parks.
[00:29:42]  So that's the structure.
[00:29:43]  We're all paying for it.
[00:29:45]  Chairman Graham, just to put a fine point on the bill, you're not ruling out putting this in the budget.
[00:29:49]  I'm going to get it done.
[00:29:50]  I'm ruling in going through the normal process.
[00:29:55]  I'll be, well, I guess I'll be surprised.
[00:29:57]  If we can't do this now, I mean, like, what the hell happened to your Congress up here?
[00:30:03]  But if it doesn't work, I'm for doing it any way we can.
[00:30:05]  Senator Don Trinko, you all have made a principal, passionate argument for this ballroom.
[00:30:13]  The White House is not.
[00:30:14]  The White House hasn't come before Congress to make this argument.
[00:30:17]  No, I've been talking to them all day.
[00:30:19]  They support the bill.
[00:30:20]  Before the East Wing was taken down, that's the argument that the Library is.
[00:30:26]  The East Wing was taken down.
[00:30:27]  Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:30:28]  The President was trying to do it with private donations.
[00:30:30]  Yeah, right.
[00:30:32]  Well, now I think it's not a private donation event.
[00:30:35]  It's a national security event.
[00:30:36]  Right, so the question is now that you're looking to use taxpayer funds, should the White House, should Trump administration officials come before committees of jurisdiction to make the same argument?
[00:30:48]  I think they would love to do that.
[00:30:49]  I welcome a hearing.
[00:30:51]  Okay, have a hearing.
[00:30:53]  Whatever a committee, have a hearing.
[00:30:55]  Should we do my bill?
[00:30:56]  Should we do our bill?
[00:30:57]  If you want to do that, I mean that's fine with me.
[00:31:00]  Yeah, I mean.
[00:31:01]  I think American people saw this weekend why we need this.
[00:31:04]  They support the bill.
[00:31:05]  Right.
[00:31:05]  They absolutely support the bill, but we do too.
[00:31:08]  I mean, we need this.
[00:31:09]  Yeah.
[00:31:10]  You said Senator Fetterman is on board.
[00:31:12]  Yes.
[00:31:12]  How close are you to getting more Democratic?
[00:31:15]  Well, I really, in their defense, I haven't asked them.
[00:31:18]  I'm trying to jumpstart the conversation.
[00:31:20]  I've talked to a few of them just out in the hall.
[00:31:23]  They rattle like if some of them were there.
[00:31:25]  They rattle like the rest of us.
[00:31:27]  And I'll be surprised, but maybe not.
[00:31:34]  If we can't get this done, then everything that's been said here is true on steroids.
[00:31:40]  The president announced this ballroom project last summer, and there have been legal fights ongoing for the months about whether Congress needed to authorize this project.
[00:31:46]  Why did it take until this incident?
[00:31:49]  Well, I think that's a good question.
[00:31:51]  Saturday proved the point.
[00:31:53]  You know, everybody thought this is Trump making a monument to Trump, right?
[00:31:57]  This is a vanity project.
[00:32:00]  How many times have you talked to him about this?
[00:32:03]  Like, every time.
[00:32:04]  It's important.
[00:32:05]  All the time.
[00:32:06]  Like, how you doing?
[00:32:07]  Where's the ballroom?
[00:32:11]  How you playing?
[00:32:12]  I don't know.
[00:32:12]  I'd play better if you built the ballroom.
[00:32:14]  It's all the time.
[00:32:16]  It's like he understands what's missing.
[00:32:20]  As a nation, we've got a missing piece of the puzzle.
[00:32:23]  The king's coming, right?
[00:32:26]  I would also say, too, that there had been a favorable decision previously.
[00:32:31]  There has been recently, within the last week or so, an unfavorable ruling.
[00:32:36]  The court battle is not over.
[00:32:38]  I would still argue that the president has the authority to do this on tax grounds from a legal perspective.
[00:32:43]  We're going to leave this.
[00:32:44]  Take you live to the House for votes.
[00:32:46]  959 and H.R. 227.
[00:32:50]  The first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote.
[00:32:55]  Pursuant to clause 9 of Rule 20, remaining electronic votes will be conducted as