Refinitiv Newscasts - House Democrats Caucus holds a news conference 1

Crew Energy

15/11/2022 17:24

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Source: Reuters

Description: WASHINGTON, D.C., USA - The House Democratic Caucus holds a news
conference.
Short Link: https://refini.tv/3WWpno2

Video Transcript:

>> And Putin and aggression and totalitarianism and I expect that additional
funding for Ukraine will be part of any year and agreement. >> Yeah, I think
all of that's right. I think the chairman hit the points that are important,
funding government and making sure that Rosetta Loro and our colleagues in the
Appropriations Committee have the ability to continue to negotiate. I think
those conversations continue at this point. The emergency supplemental that'll
be needed for Florida and Puerto Rico. Obviously the aid to Ukraine. We hear a
lot of talk on the other side of the aisle now about conditions that they
might want in the future are related to that. Our support for Ukraine is
unconditional and we want to make sure that we honor that. And clearly and
leader Hoyer mentioned it this morning as well, a fixed for DACA. The courts
have put DACA at risk moving forward. And we want to make sure that we offer
the ability for these individuals who have had DACA status and are American in
every way except a piece of paper to continue and have hopefully a legislative
solution to a path to citizenship. The Democrats caucus has lead on this issue
from the original dream Act to the USA Act, the discharge petition when
republicans were in control to the dream and promised act that we have passed
to the US Citizenship Act that has been introduced by Linda Sanchez. And we
have time and time again stood on the right side. We're waiting for
Republicans in the Senate to do the same. We need 10 votes. And I'm sure that
senator Padilla, senator Menendez, senators Cortes Masto, and Ben ReLu Han, as
well as chairman **** Durbin, are working on these issues as well. But we hope
that they can resolve them and we stand to be willing partners in that
discussion moving forward. >> [inaudible 00:02:05] Donald Trump is clearly
demonstratively [inaudible 00:02:07] deadlines team that you all did your path
next steps really will announce, what do we do now? >> Well, I think it would
spin pretty clear from the individuals that he associates as well, that he was
not interested in cooperating with our subpoena. We've proven that there are
consequences to individuals who don't comply. And I think we'll eventually
continue to have the next word on these issues and we stand ready to work and
continue to work through the final report that will be out between now and the
end of the year. And really our effort is been so nonpartisan. And I think
that's the legacy of the committee, is that we're going to continue to move
forward, engage in this process, put together a good work product, do it
together. So we understand that the former occupant of the White House clearly
made some decisions to snub us yesterday. We're confident in our work and that
history will judge the work that we've done to hold him and individuals around
him accountable. >> [inaudible 00:03:23], what about the debt ceiling? Have
you done any plans to try to take care of that in the lame duck? >> I think
the leadership of both the House and the Senate has indicated that it's
something that we need to take a look at. And here's why. Extreme mega
republicans led by the so-called leadership on the other side of the aisle
have said that they're going to hold the economy hostage, potentially blow the
whole thing up. Why? Because they want to detonate social security and
medicare for tens of millions of Americans. Now, is that type of extremism
that was just rejected by the American people all across the country. But they
don't get it, they'll never learn. And so I think it's going to be important
for us responsible members of Congress led by democrats in the House and the
Senate to address this existential threat to the economy, to everyday
Americans, certainly in the Social Security and Medicare. >> And what
leadership message to new members this morning about their future leadership?
>> The focus today was on discussing a few of the items that we expect to be
taken up over the next several weeks that are of importance to the American
people. But as Pete has indicated, as I've indicated, it was just really a
warm and triumphant space. Seeing so many of our front-line members back in
the Congress preparing to continue to serve after surviving incredibly well in
tough elections, notwithstanding the fact that the other side of the aisle
have been measuring the drapes for so-called red tsunami for the last two
years. But their back. And to see so many dynamic colleagues ready to do the
work. That's the difference. Democrats get things done. We actually want to
make life better for everyday Americans, and we've done a pretty good job of
doing it. The American rescue plan, save the economy, shots and arms, money in
pockets, kids back in school, the infrastructure investment and jobs Act,
millions of good-paying jobs created. Also to fix our crumbling bridges,
roads, tunnels, airports, our sewer and water system, our mass transit system,
high-speed Internet access in every single community, gun safety legislation
for the first time in 30 years that will save lives, the chips in science act
to bring domestic manufacturing jobs back home to the United States of
America, as opposed to our jobs going in the other direction, which has been
happening for 30 years. And of course, the inflation reduction act, to strike
a blow against the climate crisis, set our planet on a sustainable trajectory
for , lower energy costs, strengthen the Affordable Care Act, lower health
care costs, and drive down the high price of life-saving prescription drugs.
Democrat deliver for everyday Americans. We get stuff done. We put people over
politics. And the other side of the aisle is extreme. They are out of control.
They're off the hook. They don't believe in democracy that was rejected. They
don't believe in reproductive freedom all across the country. That was
rejected. They want to detonate Social Security in five years , that was
rejected. So battles were one that are extraordinary. But that doesn't mean
that we're off the battlefield. We have to continue to fight for these
priorities, for lower costs, for better-paying jobs, so safer communities and
to defend freedom, defend so security, defend democracy, and we're excited
that we're going to have the opportunity to continue to do that. >> Talk about
how last Tuesday democratic over-performed their expectations. But one place
that republicans were able to [inaudible 00:07:23] was in your home, state of
New York, it looks like the House majority is going to come down like handful
of seats. What do you make of the fact that those slips seats in New York
really could have been majority makers for democrats? Why did that happen? >>
Yeah, we'll see what the final margin is. As I indicated, we still have a
pathway to 218. But I do think some of the conversations that are happening in
New York right now we're going to be important. I've suggested that there
should be an after-action analysis we focus on the State Democratic Party, we
focus on some of the state-wide campaigns, and try to figure out what happened
in Long Island, what happened in the Hudson Valley. More importantly, how do
we fix it? Assess the situation, but don't agonize, organize, and prepare for
what comes next. >> [inaudible 00:08:22] >> Joe Biden is a big and clear
winner, everyone said that President Biden's agenda is too ambitious. He
wasn't elected to do all of these things. Everything that we've done is
incredibly popular, and our frontliners ran on that policy agenda, and so that
our candidates. Why shouldn't Joe Biden? He said he's going to make a decision
over the next few months. I'm hopeful that President Biden will seek
re-election, and I look forward to strongly supporting him. >> Thank you, Mr.
Chairman, I know you don't want to entertain the idea of being in the
minority, but there also is a strong pathway for Republicans. >> This is
definitely a big angular question right here. >> I do want to ask, Republicans
have more or less that Republican they have nothing private, and they will
need your help to pass a number of mass pass legislation next term, if they
are in the majority, have you had Republicans look out to you in recent days
work relationships for open up those legistations, and should the caucus, be
open to working across the aisle? >> I think our Speaker Pelosi has always
made clear and the leadership within the house, every single member of the
House Democratic Caucus. Some of our accomplishments that have been
extraordinary during the current 117 Congress have been bipartisan in nature.
We've consistently indicated a willingness to work with Republicans to get big
things done. In fact, that was the case going back to the prior presidency, we
worked with the administration to get the First Step act done under Republican
House, Senate and a Republican presidency to strike a blow for criminal
justice reform in a way that brought both sides of the house together. We work
together with Republicans to pass the US, Mexico, Canada trade agreement on
President Trump's signature political issue. But we worked with him because we
understood it was the right thing to do for America, for organized labor, for
working class and middle-class folks. And so I think our track record speaks
for itself, we are always guided by doing the right thing for the American
people. >> Think that's the metric of this caucus, is, does the policy help
our communities and does it help our country? Is the chairman mentioned his
own leadership on the First Step act. The work that we have done in prior
administrations, I think should speak for itself. I personally led some
efforts to solve DACA when Republicans were in control, joined with
Republicans who supported a discharge petition to force bills to the floor so
we can have resolution on this. I think 19 Republicans joined a discharge
petition against their own leadership to do it. So we've got relationships and
we can have conversations with individuals across the aisle when the policy is
right and when the policy matters. But if Republicans are going to engage in
the continued extremism that we've seen over the past few years, then I don't
know if there's an appetite. The policy is going to have to dictate that, but
they're going to have to work to silence their extreme voices within their own
caucus when it comes to achieving results for the American people. Because
when it comes to the infrastructure bill, when it comes to these big pieces of
legislation, those have always been bipartisan and we hope that there are
bills in the future that meet that threshold. But I don't know if this
leadership on the other side of the aisle can string together enough willing
participants to do that. But we're going to hold out hope because the American
people want us to work together. I think that was a resounding message from
last week, and we're always going to hold out hope that this new Congress can
operate in that same way. >> Next is this side. >> In the wake of the attack
on Paul Pelosi several weeks ago, I'm wondering what conversations leadership
caucus is having about security for members and if there's discussion of
possible affirmative steps to increase security measure. >> Well, the two
relevant committees in that regard are the House Appropriations Committee and
House Administration Committee. So I'll yield to Pete. But there have been
ongoing conversations amongst the members as well as amongst the leadership
about ways to continue to strengthen the infrastructure around the safety and
security for members of Congress in an environment of increasing political
violence and dangerous rhetoric coming from extreme forces throughout America,
including the former president of the United States of America. And so it's an
honor and a privilege to be able to serve the people that we are elected to
represent in the House and the Senate to do the best possible job in that
regard. Members and their families should be safe and secure. Under the
leadership of Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro, some important steps have already been
taken. Additional funding has been made available to try to secure the members
when they are back home in their districts. And Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren has
also taken some strong steps to heighten the coordination involving the
Capitol police, the sergeant and arms, and local law enforcement back at home.
And I expect that additional steps will continue to be taken as needed. >>
Just echo what the chairman said Chairwoman DeLauro and Chairman Tim Ryan and
Chair Zoe Lofgren have really put us on a path where this is something that we
continue to feel make progress on. There's more steps to take. And obviously
as a caucus, our hearts and our thoughts go out to Paul Pelosi. He's someone
who is a figure in our meetings and our dinners. He is a frequent guest and we
spend a lot of time with members of leadership and their families. And so
we're thinking about him in these times as well. As the chairman mentioned,
this hot rhetoric is troublesome and worrisome, and I can tell you one of the
things you've heard me say before is I don't talk about member security, and
that's going to hold true. But I will tell you this continues to be a topic
among members. Members are concerned, new members are concerned, and we need
to do everything we can to help that, we need to talk about the local
coordination efforts that are available to them. We need to support the
$10,000 that was in the budgets for each of us to look through security. We
need to hope that Republicans join us in ensuring that something like that
continues in the future congresses and then that should be a bipartisan issue.
So those are our hopes and we're going to continue to work within the
committees or jurisdiction to ensure that gets done. But this is something
that members continue to talk about often. >> Question, I'm interested in the
business community. There's talk of attack extenders package, research and
development, amortization on them. Some Democrats wanted by the child tax
credit. You see the possible ways that guide as it gets past? >> Well, to my
understanding that they're all discussions, those discussions are going to
presumably be led by Chairman Richie Neal. I have great faith and confidence
in him to try to negotiate something that makes sense for the American people,
for American families, but also for the economy, for commerce, and for
businesses that are committed to creating good paying American jobs. Anything
else from this side? >> It's certainly next to New York. Do you think Jacob
should be holder of bipartisan? >> I think we need an after action assessment
of what went right, what went wrong, and what can be done better. That should
focus on the institution and not any one particular individual at this point
in time. >> Congressman Quayle said he got calls from allies, Leader McCarthy
trying to get him to switch parties, I'm wondering if your side has done any
outreach to any Republicans. And assuming Republicans take the majority in the
narrow one, would you got to try to work with great way republicans to elect
some consensus speaker? >> I think that's all premature until we have some
definitive resolution on who gets to 218. But think about this for a moment,
and I know for a fact that outreach has taken place to Representative Quayle.
The nerve of these individuals and how desperate are they, that they literally
just spend millions of dollars mischaracterizing Henry Quayle's leadership and
talked about the emergence of a red wave in the Rio Grande Valley, then get
wiped out by Quayle and Vincente Gonzalez and want to run to them saying, we
need your help because we're struggling, because the American people rejected
our extremism, because they saw us for who we are and are not confident
despite all of the gerrymandering that took place across the country,
including in Florida, which may actually be decisive. But we'll see what
happens at the end of the day. This wasn't an effort that they've earned at
all. And now we see how desperate they are reaching out to members like Henry
Quayle literally days after he just defeated millions of dollars spent against
them. >> With Wired Magazine, curious any discussion going on about what to do
with Bitcoin and crypto and all this stuff after the collapse of FTX? >> Well,
I think that's an issue that I presume will be taken up by the Financial
Services Committee under the great leadership of Maxine Waters as well as the
Agriculture Committee under the leadership of David Scott, both of whom are in
different iterations could have jurisdiction over issues related to crypto.
And we'll see what happens. >> Has this has to been at the leadership level?
>> It wasn't an issue that was raised in the caucus meeting today. There are a
whole host of issues that I think we are planning on working through. And I
could imagine that the situation related to the Cryptocurrency industry will
be one of them moving forward. >> How is Republicans let's say, oversight an
investigations will be a major part of their focus and they take the majority.
How is Democrats planning on pushing back House? >> I want [inaudible
00:20:03] to peed on this, but think about this for a moment. This is why
extreme mega Republicans are in such a bad spot and are not right for our
country. We are working to emerge from a global once in a century, pandemic.
Working to deal with global inflation. Working to make our communities safer.
All issues where Democrats have acted over the last two years in an
extraordinary way, but Democrats recognize that more needs to be done. And
what is right at the top of the extreme mag of Republican agenda in the house,
let's investigate President Joe Biden's family. That's what they want to do.
That is the message that they're sending to the American people. It is not a
winning message, but that's what happens when you are captive to the hard
right. And house Republican leadership is captive right now to the hard right.
And the situation didn't get easier based on what happened in the midterm
election, it got harder for them. At the same time, Democrats are going to
continue to focus on kitchen table, pocket book, bread and butter issues like
lower-cost, better paying jobs, and safer communities for the American people.
>> I think it's very telling that Kevin McCarthy applause line he wants in his
job interview is that he's going to defund the January 6th committee and send
that money over to investigations. That's who he's speaking to. He's to the
House Freedom Caucus because he needs to count these votes. He's not speaking
to the issues that the American public want addressed. He's not speaking about
the economic issues of the day. He's not speaking about how we make
communities safe because he's trying to string together the number of votes to
be a leader. And I think it's unfortunate state of where our politics is on
that side of the aisle, but we're not going to be deterred. Our values are
going to be the same. Our focus is going to be the same. How do we stabilize
these issues? How do we make life better for Americans and working class
individuals in our community? So that's what our focus is. >> Last two
questions. >> Given that Democrats don't really want to discuss the leadership
situation, talk to your [inaudible 00:22:32] called. You guys might take a few
days, maybe longer and then you guys are out for Thanksgiving and the
leadership elections are currently scheduled for November 30th. Is there any
chance you guys might push that back a little further or is that date set and
[inaudible 00:22:47]? >> There is no plan to change the date of the leadership
elections. And more importantly, the organization in preparation for the 118th
Congress that will take place beginning on Wednesday, November 30th. We've got
two more questions. We'll take the last two. Yeah. >> Very well >> And then
we'll go back to this. >> Thank You. Are there discussions right now and
leadership about whether to revive the permitting reform proposal that senator
mentioned wanted attached to the CR back in September? >> Yeah. That issue may
have come up in the Senate discussions. I think that's a question perhaps best
directed to Leader Schumer or Whip Durbin, but it didn't come up in any of the
conversations that we had earlier today in the Caucus. >> Thank you >> With
the former President announcement coming as soon as tonight, does this make it
more urgent for Democrats to pass legislation like the Electoral Count Act or
for the January 6th Law Committee to wrap up its work? >> Well, with respect
to the January 6th committee [inaudible 00:23:52] to peed on that. Chairman,
Thompson has done an incredible job, all the members of the January 6
committee have done an incredible job in lifting up the challenges that our
democracy has confronted because of the events of January 6th and before when
the former so-called twice impeached president of the United States
perpetuated the big lie that led to a violent insurrection and did a whole
host of other things to inspire the attack on the Capitol as the January 6th
committee has so forcefully and comprehensively and in a bipartisan way
documented. But the interesting thing about the former president who
apparently is going to make an announcement today, which is extraordinary. The
so-called GOP Red Wave turned into a red wedding for extreme mega Republicans
and election deniers in race after race after race all across the country.
Here's the Republican response, the cult leader should run again. And we're
going to double and triple down on extremism. We're going to double and triple
down on a nationwide abortion ban. We're going to double and triple down on a
tax on a democracy, and we want to eliminate Social Security and Medicare.
That's extraordinary. But that is the modern day Republican Party as compared
to Democrats who deliver big things for the American people on the issues that
matter, including around the economy, job creation, lower-cost, and safer
communities. >> There isn't anything that is a former the twice impeached
President can do that would impact the January 6th, the work that we have a
head. Like I said, this has been non-partisan work under the leadership of
Chairman Bennie Thompson and Vice Chair Liz Cheney. We look forward to our
work product standing the test of time and speaking for the day of January 6th
and what led up to January 6th and we look forward to the conclusion of that
work. Our view has always been that this was a select committee that serves in
a point in time only for this congress. That has always been our focus and our
goal. New information came up that necessitated more hearings that bumps back
the final report a little later than maybe we would have wanted, but we want
to make sure it's full-some, we want to make sure it's right. And nothing that
goes down in Florida is going to affect our focus on that. >> Thank you so
much. >> Thank you, everyone. >> Thank you, everyone