Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) held a press briefing on Tuesday after the Senate passed a bill to send aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Good morning to you.
00:05 Morning.
00:07 How many got more than three hours to raise their hands?
00:13 Well, thank you all who had to stay up.
00:17 All right. So, good morning everybody, and thank you for joining us after a long night.
00:25 Today, after not just a long night and weekend, but after months of work, we can say it's been worth it.
00:35 Today we witnessed one of the most historic and consequential bills passed the Senate,
00:41 a bill that so greatly impacts not just our national security, not just the security of our allies,
00:48 but also the security of Western democracy as we know it.
00:54 Tonight, finally, America led the way for freedom and democracy.
01:00 And with this bill, the Senate declares that American leadership will not waver, falter, or fail.
01:14 Today the Senate keeps its word to Ukrainians in need, desperate need, of supplies and ammunition,
01:21 to innocent Palestinian civilians in need, so much need of relief, to Israelis in need of support,
01:29 and to U.S. service members on patrol in the Indo-Pacific, the Red Sea, and around the world.
01:37 Today we sent a clear bipartisan message of resolve to our allies in NATO.
01:45 With the strong bipartisan vote in the Senate, it's clear that if Speaker Johnson brings this bill to the House floor,
01:54 it will pass with that same bipartisan support.
01:59 The responsibility now falls on Speaker Johnson and House Republicans to approve this bill swiftly.
02:08 And I call on Speaker Johnson to rise to the occasion, to do the right thing, bring this bill to the floor.
02:17 As I said, given the large, robust majority here in the Senate, it is clear that if that bill is brought to the floor,
02:27 our bill is brought to the floor, it will pass.
02:32 But if the hard right kills this bill, it would be an enormous gift to Vladimir Putin.
02:39 It would be a betrayal of our partners and allies and an abandonment of our service members.
02:46 And as I said, I believe if this bill is brought to the House floor, it will pass with strong bipartisan support.
02:54 There are large numbers of Democrats and Republicans in the House who know we have to stand up to our responsibilities and aid Ukraine.
03:05 I thank all of my colleagues in the Senate who supported this bill.
03:10 Thank you to Senators Murray and Murphy, Sinema and Langford, Collins, Leader McConnell as well.
03:18 And thank you to all the Senators and staffs who worked through Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and even the Super Bowl to get this done.
03:29 Finally, these past few months have been a great test for the U.S. Senate to see if we could escape the centrifugal pull of partisanship
03:40 and summon the will to defend Western democracy and our own country's values when it matters most.
03:48 Today, the Senate resoundingly passed that test. It makes me proud of the Senate.
03:55 Today, the Senate made sure that the United States is closer to meeting the monumental and consequential moment that we are in.
04:03 And now it's up to the House to meet this moment, do the right thing, and save democracy as we know it.
04:12 Questions?
04:13 We'll take this subject first.
04:15 Mr. Leader.
04:16 Go Bills.
04:17 Go Bills.
04:18 Next year.
04:19 You're wearing your Ukrainian outfit.
04:21 Not on purpose, but okay.
04:23 Not on purpose, as you can probably tell.
04:26 Speaker Johnson has already put out a statement that seems to have a degree of skepticism with this package.
04:32 Will you speak to him directly? And if you do talk to him directly, what will your message be?
04:37 My message, I would hope to speak to Speaker Johnson directly.
04:42 And my message is this is a rare moment where history is looking upon the United States and seeing if we will stand up for our values,
04:51 stand up to bullies like Putin, and do the right thing.
04:55 I will say to Speaker Johnson I am confident that there's a large majority in the House who will vote for this bill.
05:02 I am confident there are many Republicans in his caucus.
05:07 I know I've spoken to a whole bunch of them who feel strongly we ought to pass this bill.
05:12 And I will urge Speaker Johnson to step up to the moment and do the right thing.
05:20 Leader, do you think it's time for the White House and Speaker Johnson
05:24 to negotiate pretty much similar to what the Senate did but with those two parties involved in --
05:28 I think that Senate -- I think the House should pass the Senate's bill.
05:32 It's been through lots of negotiation.
05:34 It got a large, robust vote, 22 Republican votes in the Senate.
05:39 They should pass this bill.
05:41 Senator, are you ruling out adding any border security language to this bill,
05:47 either through amendment in the House or conference negotiation?
05:50 Are you ruling out adding any new --
05:52 The bottom line is this bill passed with a robust majority.
05:56 We need to get aid to Ukraine quickly.
05:58 We cannot dither for another three, four months.
06:01 And the quickest and best way to do it is pass the Senate bill.
06:05 We Democrats were willing, as you know, to go many steps in the direction of a strong, tough border bill.
06:12 Democrats were willing to support a bill supported by the Wall Street Journal editorial page.
06:17 Democrats were willing to support a bill supported by the Border Patrol Union,
06:21 which is very much a Republican organization, that was supported by the Chamber of Commerce.
06:26 And unfortunately, too many Republicans succumbed to the ministrations of Donald Trump,
06:33 Trump who said at one point, "We have to do a border bill,"
06:36 Trump who said, "The border is at an emergency,"
06:39 and then, in his own words, "For crass political purposes," said,
06:43 "I could delay this for a whole year because it might bring me help in my election."
06:48 That's not going to wash with the American people.
06:50 Yes?
06:51 Mr. Schumer, would you encourage House Democrats and others in the House to use the discharge petition if Speaker Johnson doesn't --
06:57 I'll leave that.
06:58 I speak regularly to Hakeem Jeffries, almost as much, maybe as much as I spoke to Speaker Pelosi.
07:04 And I would -- you know, I have great faith in his ability to help engineer getting this bill done.
07:10 Yes?
07:11 You said this funding would take Ukraine funding through the end of the year.
07:16 How long do you think the U.S. needs to fund Ukraine's fight, and how do you build a coalition,
07:21 given that this took several months to build, for the next round of funding?
07:25 I think that the strong vote, particularly on the Republican side in the Senate,
07:30 despite the fact that their punitive presidential candidate argued so strongly against it, gives us more moment.
07:39 And I think that it will be -- if we have to pass future aid to Ukraine, it will be easier, not harder.
07:46 But right now, this is a robust package that lasts until the end of the year.
07:50 So I'm glad it was full and robust.
07:52 Yes?
07:53 Mr. Leader, when you come back from recess, it will be a very short period of time until we have government funding deadlines.
08:00 Where does that stand?
08:02 What are your talks on that?
08:04 And do you think that Ukraine aid -- would you like to see that possibly rolled into any funding bill?
08:08 Let me ask.
08:09 First, Patty Murray and Susan Collins, you know, are working as a really good team together.
08:14 There's broad support in the Senate, and I believe in the House, where we worked with Speaker Johnson on the last bill,
08:21 to not shut down the government and fund things.
08:24 We've done our 302(a)s, we've done our 302(b)s, and as -- almost as we speak,
08:30 maybe not early this morning after we were all up last night, but as we speak in day-to-day talk,
08:37 they're working on getting these bills done.
08:40 So I'm very optimistic that we can get them done by March 1st.
08:44 As for adding one thing or another, we'll have to wait and see.
08:47 The first step -- the next step is for the House to pass the bill the Senate passed.
08:51 Yes?
08:52 Former President Trump seemed to suggest the other day that he might want to see foreign aid be turned into loans to allied countries.
08:58 If the House tried to amend this package to do that, would that be a non-starter?
09:02 Look, the House should pass our bill.
09:05 It's been through the crucible of four months of negotiations and ups and downs.
09:11 It passed the crucible on the Republican side of almost a majority of Republicans rejecting the result of their putative presidential candidate.
09:20 We ought to stick with this bill.
09:22 I mean, no one even knows how this loan program would work, you know,
09:26 because Donald Trump says something off the cuff doesn't mean Republicans should march in lockstep to do it.
09:32 Yes?
09:33 Polls show that voters are very concerned about President Biden's age and the state of his memory.
09:40 I'm curious.
09:41 You deal with him a lot.
09:42 What is your personal sort of observation on that?
09:44 And what about your practical political concerns that he might not be able to get reelected because of this?
09:52 Okay.
09:53 The first one, I talk to President Biden regularly, often sometimes several times in a week, or usually several times in a week.
10:02 His mental acuity is great.
10:04 It's fine.
10:05 It's as good as it's been over the years.
10:07 I've been speaking to him for 30 years since we worked on the Brady bill and the assault weapons ban when I was a young congressman.
10:17 And he's fine.
10:19 All this right-wing propaganda that his mental acuity has declined is wrong.
10:24 He's going to win the election because he has a great record, because more and more Americans are seeing that record,
10:31 because the economy is improving, and because a large number of Americans, including Republicans, fear a Donald Trump presidency for the future of our democracy.
10:41 Last one.
10:42 You talked a bit about how Trump was able to influence or attempt to influence this negotiation.
10:47 Is that something that you're expecting to need to deal with for government funding, everything else this year that Trump factored?
10:53 Look, Donald Trump inserts himself almost always for his own political purposes, and it's no way to govern.
11:00 And I think the American people are getting wise to that.
11:03 Thank you, everybody.
11:05 Thank you for staying here.
11:08 And for next year.
11:11 Go Bills.
11:12 Go Bills.
11:13 Go Bills.
11:14 [BLANK_AUDIO]