How it will affyect the majority of Americans
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:07Good morning, everybody, and I am proud to be joined by Senators Stabenow, Klobuchar,
00:13Blumenthal, Schatz, and Warnock.
00:16And again, as I said last week when we did this, a special thanks to our wonderful chart
00:22makers.
00:23Now, I want you to know, first, look at these terrific exclamation points.
00:24Take those in your store, and then coup de grace, the ripped-out Project 2025, see the
00:38rips?
00:39Because we're exposing it.
00:43Thank you, everybody.
00:44It's been nice meeting with you all.
00:46He's in a good mood.
00:50Okay.
00:51All right.
00:52I do want to thank Senators Stabenow, Klobuchar, Blumenthal, Schatz, and Warnock for being
00:57here, and each of them talking about a portion of 2025.
01:03There is so much in it, we could be here every day for a long time.
01:06But Senator Stabenow will talk about middle-class taxes, Klobuchar on democracy, Blumenthal
01:12on border security, Schatz on national security, and Warnock on workers' rights.
01:17Now last week, Senate Democrats came together to shine a light on just some of the dangers
01:24of Project 2025.
01:27So last week, we sounded an alarm on all of the ways Project 2025 would decimate American
01:33education, women's reproductive freedoms, our veterans, housing, and more.
01:39But of course, that's just a fraction of the horrors that Project 2025 holds.
01:45That's why today, we will highlight a few others that hold grave consequences for American
01:49families, our national security, and our very democracy.
01:53So we're here to shine a light on Project 2025 once again, this time by looking at ways
01:59it would raise taxes, hurt American workers, compromise border security, threaten our democracy,
02:06and make America less safe.
02:08And as we go over each issue, I want to remind everybody, this is the Trump plan.
02:15Project 2025 has been led by former Trump officials who put together a blueprint of
02:21what they want to get done should Trump, God forbid, get in office.
02:28So this is the Trump plan led by so many of his former employees, and they said it.
02:34The Heritage Foundation, who he relies on, said this is what we're going to do.
02:38So make no mistake about it.
02:39They're trying to run away from it now because it's so devastating for just about every American,
02:45but that's the plan.
02:47Make no mistake about it.
02:51Excuse me if we take Donald Trump's attempts to distance himself from Project 2025 with
02:58the world's largest grain of salt.
03:02Donald Trump, a few years ago, said that the Heritage Foundation would, quote, these are
03:06his words, lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement would
03:13do.
03:14Again, Donald Trump, the Heritage Foundation, which sponsored Project 2025, would lay the
03:19groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement would do.
03:24The head of the Heritage Foundation said earlier this year that his goal was, quote, institutionalizing
03:30Trumpism, unquote, including with Project 2025.
03:37Let me say those words again as well.
03:40Institutionalizing Trumpism.
03:41That's what this does.
03:43And what does that mean?
03:45First, 2025 is going to punish middle-class families with hurtful tax hikes while raising
03:52tax cuts for the wealthy.
03:54The plan is estimated to raise taxes on middle-class families by $3,000.
03:58It'll give a $1.5 million tax break to the ultra-wealthy who earn more than $10 million.
04:07Can you believe that?
04:08One tax cut for the ultra-rich wasn't enough for Donald Trump and his magna right.
04:14They want to do it again at the end of the day.
04:16That's always their endgame.
04:18Tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy paid for by everybody else.
04:23Second, 2025 will punish working families Trump pretends to care about.
04:29American workers will work longer hours for less pay as overtime pay is undermined.
04:35Many people have to work 40 hours and not get overtime pay.
04:40The Biden administration moved to correct that, and now they want to undo it.
04:45Dagger at the heart of the middle class.
04:47An estimated 4.3 million shift workers could have their overtime and wage protections eroded
04:53as guaranteed weekly time and a half pay is ended.
04:57And at the time of immense global instability with Russia invading Ukraine, Iran funding
05:01terror groups, the CCP increasing its aggression in the Indo-Pacific, Project 2025 makes America
05:08less safe, much less safe.
05:102025 breaks down the State Department, has us withdraw from the World Bank, increases
05:16the risk of catastrophic nuclear war, and wastes vital national security resources to
05:22finish Donald Trump's ineffective border wall.
05:26And for all the hard rights lip service to border security, Project 2025 rejects the
05:31bipartisan border security plan we released earlier this year, the strongest bipartisan
05:37border security bill in decades.
05:40Instead of effective bipartisan policy, 2025 would drive a policy of utter cruelty for
05:46mass deportations with little to no due process.
05:52It even risks deporting 3 million DREAMers.
05:55Can you believe it?
05:57That's what, that's the risk of this plan.
06:00Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and Project 2025 have spread a message of hatred against immigrants
06:05looking for a better life in America.
06:07They have spread lies about Haitian immigrants.
06:10They have demonized refugees, and Project 2025 would lay the foundation for a mass deportation
06:15apparatus that would inflict untold pain on millions of families without making our country
06:21any safer.
06:23And finally, 2025 would weaken our democracy by opening the floodgates to foreign interference
06:28and big money in our democracy.
06:302025 will shut down proven efforts to block foreign interference in our elections, gutting
06:36the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, while eviscerating our campaign finance
06:42laws.
06:44When it comes to the evil and sinister Project 2025, I have three Brooklyn words, N-F-W.
06:53You fill in the blanks.
06:55Senate Democrats will fight these policies with all we've got.
06:59Our future is too important not to.
07:01Senator Stabenow on tax policy.
07:04Well, thank you, Senator Schumer.
07:06It's great to be here with my colleagues.
07:09The fact of the matter is that 2025 is a project that would completely upend the middle class
07:17and the quality of life of the majority of Americans.
07:20And that's not an exaggeration when you listen to what Senator Schumer was saying.
07:27He is going to do what he always wants to do and Republicans have done, which is big
07:34tax cuts for the wealthy, for big corporations, try to stop efforts to make corporations and
07:41the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share, and at the same time, go after middle class
07:49tax cuts and those efforts that lift people up into the middle class.
07:53They attack the child tax credit.
07:56They attack the earned income tax credit.
07:59They attack everything that is supportive of those working hard every day.
08:04It may be two part-time jobs or three part-time jobs, or it may be a low wage or middle income
08:11job.
08:12But those are the folks that need to be lifted up with tax cuts, not Donald Trump's rich
08:19billionaire friends.
08:21So under Project 2025, a family of four making $110,000 a year, family of four, would be
08:27hit with a $3,000 tax increase.
08:31But good news for everyone here, if your household makes more than $10 million a year, raise
08:36your hand, you will get up to a $2.4 million tax cut if you make more than $10 million
08:45a year.
08:46So it's really clear who Donald Trump cares about.
08:50They're going to do everything they can to skyrocket costs for families and small businesses
08:55who are trying to keep the lights on and keep the kids fed and all of the other costs that
09:01they have by adding a national sales tax, which is what he intends to do, that will
09:07up costs additionally.
09:09This is going to cost Americans nearly $4,000 a year, and we already know that millions
09:15of Americans continue to struggle with health care, and their project would tax worker benefits
09:21like health care.
09:23When you think you've got a great job with health care benefits, now you could be taxed
09:28on those benefits.
09:29And let me finally just say this as chair of the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
09:34Committee.
09:35We had all of the agricultural groups in last week talking to us about the needs, prices
09:40falling, the need to support agriculture.
09:43Let me just make it very clear that Project 2025 guts all of the programs that the farmers
09:52have been in talking to us about, eliminates those things that they say are at the top
09:57of the list for family farmers, eliminates the key support they need and would receive
10:03in the Farm Bill, making it extremely difficult for family farmers to be able to survive.
10:10So 2025 is a bad deal, and all it does is show us whose side Donald Trump is on.
10:16Senator Klobuchar on democracy.
10:20Thank you, Senator Schumer, Leader Schumer, for calling us together on this Project 2025.
10:26As you might say in Brooklyn, NFW, which in Minnesota means not for women or men.
10:34When you – thank you.
10:36Just a nice little euphemism for us.
10:39And I want to thank my colleagues for being here.
10:42And my specific focus today is on the dangers that Project 2025, which is, by the way, not
10:50the number of felony indictments Donald Trump is facing, but in fact what Tim Walz called
10:56the playbook at our convention, and that's what it is.
11:00And when it comes to democracy, it truly poses a danger to our system of checks and balances.
11:06I lead with this topic because Senator Warner just had a major hearing yesterday that I
11:12suggest you look at the threats from the outside when it comes to our democracy with Russia
11:19and Iran.
11:20We've already seen the actual evidence of what Russia has been trying to do.
11:25Intel agencies have been warning for months that foreign interests like Iran, China, and
11:30Russia are trying to mess around in our democracy.
11:32Yeah, what does Project 2025 does?
11:35Big surprise, given that we know what Donald Trump said about Kim Jong-un, what he has
11:39said favorable about Vladimir Putin.
11:42It would actually make it easier for foreign adversaries to interfere in our elections
11:46by shutting down the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's efforts to combat foreign
11:52disinformation.
11:53It said it would narrow their mission about our election and preventing U.S. Cyber Command
11:58from working on efforts to strengthen election security.
12:02You do remember that after CISA said the 2020 election, remember that, was the most
12:07secure in American history, Donald Trump fired its director, Chris Krebs, his own appointee
12:13who had earned bipartisan support for his work to counter disinformation.
12:17It is just another proof point which is consistent with what Project 2025 says when it talks
12:24about limiting the work of this agency.
12:27Just this week, the current director of CISA, Jen Easterly, said that our election infrastructure
12:32has never been more secure and Project 2025 would be a massive step backwards on this.
12:38It would also inject partisanship into federal agencies that are critical to protecting our
12:43free and fair elections like the DOJ and open the door to the weaponization of the Department
12:49to harass voters and election officials.
12:51It would do this under the guise of combating voter fraud, even though experts have found
12:56that committing voter impersonation fraud is so rare that an American is more likely
13:00to be struck by lightning, yet they are using this, they are using this to make claims about
13:07fraud and then using that to weaponize our agencies.
13:11It would open the floodgates to even more secret money in our elections by weakening
13:15campaign finance laws and calling the FEC contribution limits, this is what it says,
13:22saying they should be much higher.
13:23We've already seen what they have done in the past with the Citizens United case, making
13:29it impossible to enforce the work that John McCain had done on election laws.
13:33So there you go.
13:34It sets out in detail the plan to fire tens of thousands of civil servants without cause,
13:40those charged with protecting our health and safety as well as law enforcement and national
13:44security personnel and replace them with partisan loyalists.
13:48We're talking about giving one person nearly unchecked power over everything just months
13:53after the Supreme Court, and I thank Senator Schumer for his bill he has on this, already
13:58undermined the fundamental principle that no one is above the law.
14:03So let us be clear, Project 2025 poses an enormous threat to our democracy and the words
14:10of the candidates of Donald Trump and of J.D. Vance simply have backed it up every step
14:16of the way.
14:19And now we have Senator Blumenthal on border security.
14:22I have one word for Project 2025, forget about it.
14:29That may sound like three words, but in Brooklyn, it's one word.
14:32It's on the Brooklyn Bridge, go on the Brooklyn Bridge, they say forget about it.
14:39You know, there is probably no topic on which the Trump-Vance views align more exactly with
14:51Project 2025 than on immigration.
14:56It is extreme, cruel, inhumane, and draconian.
15:00It would adopt police state tactics to break down doors, invade people's homes, and it
15:08would involve the threat of deportation, three million dreamers.
15:14But it also would wreak havoc on local economies because it contemplates deporting people who
15:22are here legally right now who are vital to businesses and to universities.
15:28Project 2025 calls for a drastic reduction to legal immigration, which would undermine
15:34our economy, our workforce, by slashing programs that allow small businesses to hire temporary
15:40workers and make it harder for universities to recruit talented students from abroad.
15:47You know, we're a nation of immigrants.
15:50On this podium, we know we are a nation of immigrants.
15:54Democrats believe in immigration because immigration have made and will continue to make our country
16:00the greatest in the world, and we all have an immigrant story.
16:04Most of us do.
16:05My dad came to this country in 1935 to escape persecution in Germany.
16:11He had not much more than a shirt on his back.
16:13He spoke virtually no English, and he knew no one.
16:17This country gave him a chance to succeed.
16:19That story is the same for most of you, and like my dad, most of your relatives would
16:28be deported under Project 2025.
16:32There's no doubt that our immigration system is broken.
16:36The system at the border is broken.
16:38The visa system is broken.
16:40It isn't working for folks who are here or people who want to come here.
16:46And it also isn't working for our communities and our businesses who rely on temporary workers
16:51to fulfill critical roles.
16:53That's why Democrats spent months negotiating with Republicans and developed a compromise
16:59border bill.
17:02That bill was the strongest border security bill in a generation.
17:07It was endorsed by the National Border Patrol Council and the Union of Border Patrol Agents,
17:14and we all know what happened.
17:16I'm not going to go through the details.
17:18They're well known to everyone.
17:21Republicans killed it because Republicans, under orders from Donald Trump, would rather
17:26talk about the border than act to fix it.
17:31And because they have a different plan for their party taking power, it's a terrifying,
17:40draconian police state in which family separation is the law of the land, due process is discarded,
17:48and private prison contractors make millions while DREAMers are deported.
17:55Project 2025 would dismantle the DACA program that has given thousands of young people who
18:02know no other country than America the ability to study, work, and give back to the communities
18:09they call home, our communities, where they are our friends, our co-workers, fellow students,
18:18In effect, it demands we turn our backs on people seeking safety and refuge, which has
18:25always been the hallmark of America.
18:29The lady who stands at the harbor of New York with a beacon of hope and opportunity for
18:36this country has always been about the American dream.
18:40Project 2025 is a draconian end to that American dream, and it isn't America.
18:51We don't want to live in it, and we should reject it.
18:54Senator Schatz on national security.
19:00Picture in 2025, the White House Situation Room as a crisis abroad is unfolding.
19:09Usually the president would gather their top experts, intelligence officials, military
19:15leaders, and others to get the latest information and discuss the next steps, except according
19:21to Project 2025, the people sitting around that table, if Donald Trump is president,
19:29would not be there on the basis of their rank, their experience, or their expertise.
19:35Their primary qualification would be loyalty to Donald Trump.
19:41So rather than a room full of experienced military officers, career diplomats, and intelligence
19:46analysts, there'd be a bunch of Trump loyalists, happy to nod their heads while he does what
19:52he wants.
19:54Donald Trump spent his entire first term making one foreign policy blunder after the other,
20:00pretending that selling out America was somehow America first.
20:06But even then, a lot of traditional Republicans, including here in the Senate, took some comfort
20:10and maybe some cover in the fact that there were, quote, adults in the room to keep him
20:15in check.
20:16Don't worry, they said.
20:18But if the chaos of his first term was somehow chalked up to a series of unhappy accidents,
20:24now we know this is their actual plan.
20:28It's there in plain writing.
20:30Anyone, whether they're an intelligence official or a diplomat or an analyst who's willing
20:34to show any independence, who's not willing to blindly go along with whatever he says,
20:41will simply not be in the room this time.
20:45Last term, you could say it was a series of unhappy accidents.
20:50This time, it's their plan.
20:53And that is not me making a partisan allegation.
20:56It is in writing, laid out in no uncertain terms in Project 2025.
21:01So make no mistake, there is a plan to turbocharge and institutionalize the chaos we saw during
21:08Trump's first term.
21:10And all of us will be less safe because of it.
21:13Thank you, Senator Schatz.
21:14Last but certainly not least, Senator Warnock on workers' rights.
21:19If you are a billionaire, Donald Trump is very concerned about you.
21:26But if you are an ordinary, working-class American, he apparently believes that your
21:32wages are too high and your taxes are too low.
21:39Project 2025 leaves almost no one unscathed.
21:44But that is especially true for working people.
21:49Because Project 2025 eliminates protections that would allow incorporations to get away
21:56with not paying overtime to workers, taking money out of the pockets of more than 4 million
22:03low-income American workers.
22:07These are folks who work every single day, and I'm always just frustrated and without
22:16words trying to understand folks who talk about the importance of work.
22:21But they're always sticking it to workers.
22:24And Project 2025 advances that agenda.
22:28His Project 2025 also would end guaranteed weekly time and a half pay, and prevent workers
22:35from banding together to improve their working conditions, all under the guise of helping
22:40workers, but in reality selling them down the river.
22:47Project 2025 proposes wiping out child labor rules that protect minors from working inherently
22:55dangerous jobs.
22:58Project 2025 prohibits the collection of workplace discrimination data, stripping victims of
23:06a means of proving their case in court.
23:13This is Donald Trump's plan.
23:16He is focused on improving the lot of people like himself, because apparently they are
23:22suffering, and he wants to make it hard for hardworking American people.
23:28Here's what I believe.
23:29People don't mind working hard.
23:32They just want to share in the prosperity that they're helping to create for others.
23:38They want a livable wage.
23:42They want to be able to retire with dignity.
23:44They want health care.
23:46Project 2025, Donald Trump's Project 2025, is one huge step in the wrong direction.
23:55When I talk to Georgians, it is clear that the more they learn about Project 2025 and
24:00the ways in which it will hurt their pockets, the more alarmed they become about Donald
24:06Trump's plans for their future.
24:10The choice in this election could not be more stark, and I believe that the American people
24:15are going to make the right choice.
24:16Okay.
24:17We'll take questions to any of us on this subject first.
24:18Yes.
24:19Project 2025 says that for the Treasury Department, the administration should, quote, take affirmative
24:20steps to expose and eradicate the practice of critical race theory and diversity, equity
24:21and inclusion, end quote, throughout the agency.
24:22Does the agencies and the Treasury Department need federal protections to keep their, say,
24:23office of minority women in place?
24:24Look, we have always believed in diversity as a country and as a party, and we think
24:52that Project 2025 probably doesn't even give a hoot about diversity.
24:55Yes.
24:56It's related.
24:57NBC News reported today that the Trump campaign asked Senator Lindsey Graham to go to Nebraska
24:58and take a winner's resolve from him, which means that...
24:59That's a stretch that it's on this subject.
25:00Well, kind of.
25:01That's all right.
25:02We will...
25:03There you go.
25:04Thanks.
25:05Look, Senators, we can speak to this up there.
25:06So, what is your reaction to that, that they are doing this?
25:07Well, I think it's a good question.
25:08I think it's a good question.
25:09I think it's a good question.
25:10I think it's a good question.
25:11I think it's a good question.
25:12I think it's a good question.
25:13I think it's a good question.
25:14I think it's a good question.
25:16Look, they're very worried about the election, as they should be.
25:29The American people every day see the contrast between what they have proposed in things
25:35like Project 2025, the subject of this little discussion, and what we are calling for.
25:46And so, they're worried.
25:47You want to say something?
25:48Just one more thing is that, you know, this is his old playbook, right?
25:51He tries to change the rules in the middle of an election.
25:55Or they try to get rid of Saturday voting right at the end of the Georgia Senate race.
26:00Or they claim, once they lose, that they need 11,000 more votes, and that the election
26:06wasn't okay.
26:07There are little criminal cases going on against fake electors around the country.
26:11So, in this case, they're just trying to change the rules in the middle of the game that have
26:14already been set, and been set for a long, long time, all those elections run in Nebraska.
26:19So, I just, I think they try to mess around with elections all the time, and the people
26:23have had it.
26:24And you look at what happened even back in 2022, when over 30 percent of people that
26:28voted Democratic said that the democracy was the major reason for it, because they
26:34don't want to see the Speaker of the House's husband bludgeoned with a hammer.
26:37They don't want to see people in camo in Arizona, in lines.
26:41They've been messing around with these elections for a long time, and the American people are
26:44on to it, and they will be on to it in Nebraska.
26:47They can't win.
26:48They can't.
26:49Go ahead.
26:50I literally had to sue the state of Georgia, so that folks could vote the first weekend
26:54of the runoff.
26:55And now, as you're watching what's happening in Georgia with these shenanigans from the
26:59state elections board, they are clearly trying to set up a scenario in which they could refuse
27:06to certify an election whose results they don't like.
27:11It's turning democracy on its head, rather than the people picking their officials, the
27:15officials are getting to decide which people get to vote.
27:19Look, they can't win legitimately, so they always try to change the rules at the last
27:23minute.
27:24But the good news is, we've been prepared for this for a long time, led by Mark Elias.
27:28We have knocked back so many of their incursions on people voting.
27:32Yes?
27:33I'll make decisions.
27:34No, no, no.
27:35That's okay.
27:36Are you prepared to move forward with the spending bill, or will you let the House continue
27:37to stew and dump the juices?
27:43Well, look, you know, the bottom line is very, very simple, and that is you need a bipartisan
27:50agreement to get things done, and hopefully Speaker Johnson will learn that.
27:57He's not, by trying the partisan route, he's flopped, totally flopped right on his face.
28:03So we have filed today, and if the House can't get its act together, we're prepared to move
28:10forward.
28:11Yes?
28:12Republicans, many Republican House members, as many of you have reported, are smart enough
28:37to know that if there's a shutdown, it will be a Republican shutdown, that they know that
28:43people know Democrats do not want a shutdown, and they realize that Donald Trump, when it
28:48comes to legislating, doesn't know what the heck he's talking about.
28:51Yes?
28:52When it comes to the CR, do you have any red lines when it comes to disaster relief, as
28:58well as substantial...
28:59Yeah.
29:00We're not going to negotiate in public on this issue.
29:01Yes?
29:02Well, look, I mean, I would hope that should Donald Trump lose, and I believe he will,
29:28that Republicans will realize that following Trump is a path fraught with terrible consequences
29:35for the nation, but also bad political consequences for themselves.
29:39Yes?
29:40Has there been any conversation between you and the Speaker about this, or this idea that
29:41you're going to file a culture on a vehicle, this is all just a wink and a nod, he might
29:42make another play, you guys pass your bill next week, send it over, everybody gets to
29:43do it?
29:44Not negotiating in public.
29:45That's not...
29:46I'm trying to understand.
29:47Have you had a conversation with the Speaker about this?
29:48I'm not...
29:50I'm not negotiating in public.
29:53Yes?
29:54Some Senate Republicans have voiced disapproval of Phil Miller not getting the appropriation
29:57bills on the floor or if they have passed that opportunity...
30:00We're having the IDF vote the CDSR meeting on the CR.
30:01What's your response to that?
30:02Listen, the bottom line is that it was Leader McConnell who didn't want to move forward.
30:15The bottom line is that it was Leader McConnell who didn't want to move forward.
30:18He said, let's see what the House will do.
30:20But as you heard him say yesterday, a shutdown would be a disaster.
30:23And it's clear from his language, he doesn't agree with what the House is doing.
30:28Yes.
30:29The crypto industry is spending millions of dollars specifically in Senate races.
30:30I know a lot of them are boosting some Democrats in those races, but they're also working against
30:31others.
30:32Are you having any frustration with the influence that they could be having?
30:42Look, the bottom line is that it was Republicans who blocked a crypto bill that Senator Stabenow
30:48had put together on the ad committee last year.
30:51And we're going to have to figure out how to move forward from here.
30:54Last one.
30:55Ah, thank you.
30:56Next time, I'll call on you first.
30:57Do you think that's something that could be done, or what are the ramifications of that?
31:16I think that was Senator Schatz.
31:17Go ahead.
31:18Yeah.
31:19You know, I'm a member of the Armed Services Committee as well as Veterans Affairs.
31:25This militarization of immigration policy would be a national security disaster.
31:31Our military leadership is deeply against it.
31:36Troops on the ground think it compromises their mission.
31:40And it really illuminates Donald Trump's total misunderstanding of the United States military
31:50as a force for our national defense, not for his personal preferences to demagogue
31:58an issue.
31:59And I think that's the reason why our military leadership thinks so negatively about it.
32:05Senator Schatz, the last word.
32:07Just that we have a lot of very dangerous adversaries around the world, and it shows
32:15that Donald Trump considers Mexico and Canada to be more dangerous than Iran and North Korea
32:22and China.
32:24Thank you, everybody.
32:26You don't think Trump might run in 2028 again?
32:27I'm just curious.
32:28Watch the debate again.