House Democratic leadership held a press briefing on Wednesday at their annual issues conference.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Welcome everyone. Pleasure to be joined by my colleagues and we'll be joined by
00:05the DCCC Chair Susan Del Bene here shortly. Just so thrilled to be here
00:10with Vice Chair Ted Lieu and putting this conference together and of course
00:15Leader Jeffries, Whip Clark and Assistant Leader Neguse. We could not do this
00:20without the support of the Democratic leadership team and we feel all that
00:24support throughout our time here. In the first seven weeks of the Trump
00:31administration we have seen nothing but chaos, confusion and corruption coming
00:37out of the White House. House Republicans have either stayed silent as their
00:41constituents get hurt or are voting to rip away health care for millions of
00:46Americans to pay for tax giveaways for billionaires. House Democrats have been
00:52united in standing up for Medicaid to keep health care more affordable. House
00:58Democrats have been united in honoring our veterans who have fallen victim to
01:03Elon Musk's reckless cuts at the VA health care system. We've been united in
01:08protecting Social Security even as the President of the United States used his
01:12joint address to lay out the groundwork for cutting these benefits by lying to
01:20our country about the claims of hundred-year-old beneficiaries. And all
01:25of us remain united in our overarching message to make Leader Jeffries, Speaker
01:31Jeffries no later than next year. We're going to talk about all of this over the
01:36course of the next few days and we're going to put the needs of the American
01:40people front and center in everything that we do. The economy that House
01:45Democrats helped build is in a freefall. In 2026, we need a Democratic House to
01:51protect the American people from the costly missteps of the Trump
01:55administration. With that, introduce Leader Jeffries. Thank You Chairman
02:03Aguilar and Vice Chair Liu for your leadership for convening House Democrats
02:08and for the manner in which you have presided over the House Democratic
02:13Caucus in such an effective way during these very challenging times. Donald
02:20Trump and House Republicans are crashing the American economy in real time and
02:25leading us toward a possible recession. Donald Trump and House Republicans
02:32promised that they would lower the high cost of living on day one. Costs aren't
02:37going down, they're going up. Inflation is going up. The stock market is going down.
02:44Consumer confidence is going down. Consumer spending is going down. The
02:50retirement security of the American people is going down and it's all
02:56connected to the chaos, confusion, and corruption of the Trump administration
03:04and extreme MAGA Republicans. House Democrats remain united in the effort to
03:09protect Medicaid and the health care of the American people. We remain united as
03:15it relates to protecting Social Security and Medicare. House Democrats strongly
03:22opposed the reckless Republican spending bill that will hurt families, hurt
03:27seniors, and hurt veterans. House Democrats remain committed to building
03:33an affordable economy and driving down the high cost of living for everyday
03:40Americans. And House Democrats are united in our understanding that we must take
03:47back the majority next year with the fierce urgency of now. One of the members
03:54who has led us in such an extraordinary way, both as it relates to keeping
04:00Democrats together, as was the case yesterday, and of course as it relates to
04:11the House Republican devastating budget resolution, is our dynamic whip, the
04:18Honorable Catherine Clark. Thank you so much, Mr. Leader, and to Chairman Aguilar
04:27and Vice Chair Liu, we are so grateful to you for once again organizing this
04:32opportunity to come together as Democrats. This is always a powerful
04:39opportunity and issues conference, but this year especially we are really
04:45grateful because we have a lot to dig into, especially the last 24 hours have
04:53shown a stark illustration of what we're fighting to stop. A Republican
04:59Party that promised to put more money in the pockets of working people, they
05:05turned around and stole their money. Stole from their own constituents, from
05:11their schools, their health care, their retirement, all to cut billionaire taxes
05:16and funnel corrupt contracts to Elon Musk. Just look at the split screen.
05:23People can't afford their rent, they can't afford eggs, and what is Trump
05:29doing? He is hawking luxury car brands of his biggest donor on the White House
05:37lawn. The same day he is slashing the Department of Education in half, going
05:44after 180,000 teachers whose jobs depend on federal funding. 7.5 million
05:53special education teachers who get federal support, and the 90% of kids in
06:00this country who attend our public schools. And that's just the start.
06:07Yesterday's defunding bill is going to wreak havoc on working families, and once
06:12again it's women and girls who will pay the heaviest price. The domestic
06:17violence survivors, they're voting to evict them. The overworked VA nurses, 84%
06:24of whom are women, who are either fired or being forced to take on even heavier
06:30workloads. The patients watching Republicans defund Alzheimer's disease,
06:36breast cancer, and maternal mortality research. The moms who are searching for
06:43affordable child care. Whether it's born out of cruelty, cowardice, or corruption,
06:48or all three, the GOP is hell-bent on making families at home unsafe. So we
06:56recognize these are brutal and scary times, but here's our message to the
07:01American people. The House Democrats stand with you. We are fighting alongside
07:09you. We are not going to let House Republicans get away with this crime
07:14spree. Every day, leaders from our caucus are holding the line, and especially, a
07:21little preview, the extraordinary women who have joined our ranks this caucus
07:27that I hope you will come join me at 1015 a.m. tomorrow to meet our freshman
07:33women. But in the meantime, I will turn it over to another remarkable leader, our
07:40field general and talented chair of the DPCC, Susan DelBene. What did I say? Oh,
07:48she, you know, we have a lot of acronyms. One of those. Thank you. Good afternoon,
07:58everyone. Just a little over two months into the trifecta, House Republicans are
08:06well on their way to breaking the economy. Consumer confidence is
08:10evaporating. A new CNN poll today shows a majority of Americans disapprove of
08:15Trump's handling of the economy. A record high stock market has lost all
08:20its gains since January, and prices continue to rise at the grocery store,
08:24the gas pump, and the pharmacy counter. Affordability was the number one issue
08:30for voters last election, but House Republicans have done nothing to lower
08:35prices. Promises were made. Promises are broken. Their tariffs will raise prices
08:41and create massive uncertainty for businesses, small and large. A small
08:46business owner in my district recently told me he's already losing business.
08:50He's not sure if he can be competitive price-wise going forward. Just the
08:54uncertainty alone of whether tariffs will be there or not has caused him to
08:59lose business. And what's more, the stop and start and chaotic nature of these
09:04tariffs continues to be extremely harmful. It's easy to lose business. It's
09:10hard to get it back. And House Republicans seem fine with this. They
09:14dismiss the damage they're causing as a little disturbance. But when a farmer
09:20can't buy the fertilizer they need during planting season right now or
09:24export their crops, that's not a little disturbance. It's incredibly harmful to
09:30their business. And Republicans promise to support our businesses, our farmers,
09:35and our workers. But with these tariffs, they're doing exactly the opposite. House
09:40Democrats and the American people are going to hold Republicans accountable
09:43for their broken promises. And we're already seeing across the country people
09:49standing up and speaking out against their dangerous agenda. The public is
09:54opposed to their cuts to Medicaid. They're opposed to the mass layoffs of
09:58firefighters, of inspectors in charge of combating bird flu, of veterans
10:05who are supporting veterans at the Veterans Administration. House
10:10Republicans know how unpopular their agenda is, which is why vulnerable House
10:14Republicans have stopped holding in-person town halls. They can't, you
10:20know, they can try to hide all they want, but they can't hide from voters forever.
10:25The frustration and anger we're seeing across the country should send a loud
10:29message to House Republicans. People are ready for a change and they're ready to
10:33help House Democrats take back the gavels. So now I want to turn it over to
10:42our incredible Vice Chair from the great state of California, Ted Lieu.
10:49Good afternoon. Chairman Aguilar and I are excited about this year's Issues
10:54Conference. And let me start by thanking Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Webb Clark, and
10:59Chairman Aguilar for their strong leadership in unifying the Democratic
11:04Caucus against the Republican CR. That was a strong show of force yesterday by
11:09House Democrats. Donald Trump last week came to Congress and he lied to the
11:14American people. He promised a golden age. Instead, we're entering a Trump slump. We
11:21see that prices have increased, especially egg prices. We see the stock
11:25market is down, up crossly 2,500 points since Trump took office, and consumer
11:31sentiment is down. And this is because of his chaotic policies, such as
11:35indiscriminate tariffs, and then his weakness and indecisiveness and
11:39flip-flopping on those tariffs that is causing a lot of chaos in the markets.
11:44He's also doing harmful things like cutting scientists and inspectors who
11:49work on bird flu. He's cutting funding for scientists who are working on
11:53diseases such as ALS, Alzheimer's, and cancer. And the American people are
11:58noticing. In January, Democrats flipped a state Senate seat in Iowa that Trump had
12:05won by 21 points. And just this week, in another special election in Iowa for a
12:11House delegate seat, our candidate overperformed by 24 points. And with our
12:17field general, Susan DelBene, we are going to flip the House next year. And I
12:22look forward to working with this entire leadership team in doing so. It's
12:25now my honor to introduce Joe Neguse, who has done a fantastic job as Assistant
12:30Democratic Leader.
12:34Well, good afternoon. I thank you all for being here. Thank you to Chair Aguilar,
12:39Vice Chair Liu, for convening us for the important conversations that will ensue
12:42over the next two days. And of course, to Leader Jeffries, Whip Clark, and Chairwoman
12:46DelBene for their incredible leadership over the course of these last several
12:50years. There's a headline that I came across this morning that I think so well
12:56encapsulates the chaos and the dysfunction that we are living through
13:00in the precarious moment that we find ourselves in from CBS News. And the
13:04headline is this. Lutnick says Trump's policies are, quote,
13:08worth it even if they lead to a recession. The Lutnick, of course, that
13:14this article is referring to, is President Trump's Commerce Secretary.
13:18Think about that for a second. That in his view, these reckless economic policies
13:23are worth it even if they cause a recession. And it appears they will get
13:28their wish. As you heard Vice Chair Liu, Chair Aguilar, Leader Jeffries, Whip Clark,
13:32Chairwoman DelBene describe the economic havoc that President Trump and his
13:38administration have created over just the course of these last seven weeks.
13:42Stock market crashing. Job losses piling up. 401ks vanishing. The prices for
13:49everyday goods going up across the board. Federal workers, folks at the Forest
13:54Service, wildland firefighters in my district back home in Colorado purged
13:58from the federal government. Agencies being dismantled. All of this has real
14:04world consequences for the people that we are also privileged to serve here in
14:09the United States Congress. The time for the Trump administration to abandon
14:13these reckless policies is now. They warrant a decisive, comprehensive
14:20response from House Democrats, which is precisely what we've done for the better
14:24part of the last seven weeks. And we look forward to having more discussions on
14:28our response in the days ahead. With that, I'll turn it back to Chairman Aguilar.
14:33Thank you, Joe. Questions?
14:36Brianna.
14:38For all of you, but Mr. Leader, I know you said a couple weeks ago, what leverage
14:43do we have with Democrats in the minority?
14:46Obviously, you all exerted some kind of leverage yesterday. You almost unanimously
14:51voted against. Is that the only kind of leverage that you guys for two being
14:55able to use? And should Senate Democrats also use that leverage of voting more on this bill?
15:01The leaders also talked about, look, there's a debt limit. There's future
15:07appropriations discussions. There will be opportunities for us to show how united
15:14we are fighting for the American people. Susan DelBene came from a hearing where
15:19Ways and Means members were doing just that. Each and every day we show we're
15:25united for everyday Americans. Now, we're going to continue to work with our
15:30members and talk about ideas and strategies on how we show that, how we
15:34demonstrate that. The leader will guide our efforts. But what you saw yesterday
15:39and what you saw in the budget reconciliation vote where Catherine Clark
15:44and her whip team, every Democrat on board, shows and demonstrates exactly who
15:51we're fighting for and what our focus is. Mr. Leader?
15:55That was a rhetorical question that I asked in response to a reckless charge
16:00from Speaker Mike Johnson, that it was House Democrats who were determined to
16:05shut down the government. I'm not even sure why we're still on that point after
16:08what we've seen repeatedly in terms of House Democrats standing firmly together
16:16to oppose the largest Medicaid cut in American history. Every single House
16:23Democrat and Republicans are on the run all across America, which is why they
16:31have been ordered not to hold
16:35town hall meetings. House Democrats are doing the exact opposite. Next week, we
16:41will have a day of action all across America in support of Medicaid, and our
16:47members will continue to hold town hall meetings, engage with constituents,
16:53visit schools, hospitals and nursing homes to make it clear that we're
17:00standing up for the American people.
17:04So we
17:06will continue to be united in our defense of everyday Americans, and
17:13Republicans are clearly united in bending the knee to Donald Trump and
17:19Elon Musk.
17:24I don't know why anyone would support that bill
17:30for the United States Senate. Look, we're going to wait for the white smoke,
17:33just like everybody else out of their out of their lunch. But
17:37there is nothing in this bill that gives the certainty that the American public
17:43need cuts to veterans health care, continued cuts for these agencies that
17:51are providing services from wildland firefighting to cancer research.
17:56Elon Musk and Donald Trump are systematically already shutting down the
18:01federal government. Why we would want any part of that, I have no idea. Over
18:06here.
18:07I'm happily going to give it to her sight unseen.
18:38Well, you actually talked about part of it when we overperformed last cycle. We
18:47gained seats, we flipped 10 seats from red to blue, and we are to 15, which is
18:56puts us in an incredible position. So we need three more seats. As you said, we
19:00won also in Trump districts across the country. And I think given that was
19:06before the chaos and dysfunction that we've seen for the Republican Party
19:10already just in two months and the outrage that we've heard from the
19:15American people across the country. So we're gonna hold them accountable. I
19:18think that folks want to see an economic issues are top of mind. We're
19:23gonna continue to recruit and have great candidates. That's one reason we
19:27won across the country. Even in tough districts, you've got great candidates
19:31who are focused on the kitchen table issues of their districts and who are
19:35coming to Washington C to fight to get things done. And so we're gonna work
19:39hard. One, make sure we reelect all the great folks that we just brought into
19:43Congress and to recruit great candidates, focus on the issues, the
19:47American people and hold Republicans accountable for the chaos they have.
19:51That's that's why we'll be successful next year. Absolutely.
19:56Michael.
19:57Thank you, Mr.
19:58Donald Trump has painted this picture of his first few weeks as cleaning up the mess that the Biden administration and Democratic control of Congress left behind. He has a powerful media ecosystem behind him that, you know, a lot of Americans really
20:16parents. How do you break through that information gap and help folks understand the things that you did last time in previous Congress? What you all will do if you were to get those gavels back, given the fact that you have such control of such a powerful megaphone now that he's president again and has this media ecosystem behind him?
20:36Well, and we saw 99 minutes of of lies in front of the American public. We're not
20:42trying to compete with that. We're trying to talk directly to the American people about our positive vision for the future. But it's based on data that American people can see that Donald Trump was given an economy that was on the way up.
20:59We could come from the pandemic, worked our way through that stock market, inflation going down, stock market going up. It's completely inverted now. Stock market crumbling, consumer confidence declining. That's the Donald Trump legacy. That's what Donald Trump's economy and his tariffs on again, off again, all of that uncertainty. The American public, they may not follow every in and out, but they know that these guys are not fighting for them.
21:28And so I appreciate the DPCC and Leader Jeffries offering an opportunity for us to get our message out in a different format during the joint address to Congress. Collective eyeballs looking at content is something that we're all talking about now. We're doing different things. We're trying to reach more people to get our positive message about the country and what we stand for.
21:55Those are things that we can control and that we can do. We're not trying to compete with Donald Trump for that megaphone that he has with the conservative media apparatus behind him. We're trying to focus on the American people and to show them how we're fighting, what we're fighting for, and the importance of this moment.
22:11That's what this vote was about. We stood up for the American people, and we will time and time again have their interests in mind when we're voting to protect health care, to protect investments in lifesaving medicine. All of those things, House Democrats continue to do.
22:27Whip Clark? Okay. Last one.
22:49You're talking to the House Democratic leadership team. We control what's in front of us and our members. I'm so proud of our members continuing to listen to us, ask for guidance, ask for more information, wanting to get this vote right for their districts.
23:06The level of information that this team, that Leader Jeffries and Whip Clark were providing to our members so people feel confident and so they understand the detail of this. This was not a clean CR. A clean CR, we voted for those. Those are three pages. You move a date around. This is 90 pages.
23:25Anomalies were pages 12 through 87. This is anything but clean, and House Democrats knew that, and so our unity was important. It was important because we keep hearing from the American people that they want us to push back against Donald Trump's chaos and extremism, and that's exactly what our vote was about, and I'll ask Whip Clark to.
23:51Yeah, just to add what our chairman already said, what we are faced with was really two prongs.
24:02One, we have a blank check to doge, to keep on doging and taking a chainsaw to the very programs that American families are saying they want us to protect, whether that's their health care or veterans benefits or public schools.
24:21Social security is, we have said repeatedly, if this CR protected social security, Medicare and Medicaid, we would have voted for it, but they did just the opposite, and how do we know this is all part of the scheme of dismantling government, taking deserving taxpayer dollars and giving it to the billionaire class?
24:46Because Republicans told us so. You saw Freedom Caucus members coming out and saying, I am now going to support this CR after I have been told by the Trump administration this will be a path to further cuts and spending.
25:04That is a path to stealing taxpayer dollars, and that is why you saw that unity, and I think our unity of purpose is a clear sign of whose side we stand on.
25:17We're standing on the side of working families, and that's why our message to the Senate is also stand with us on that side, and we think that our vote gives the Senate the strength and the message they need to stand up as well.
25:36Five days ago, House Democratic leadership, Catherine Clark, Pete Aguilar, myself, all of us came out strongly against the partisan Republican spending bill because we understood that it was not a continuing resolution that maintained existing spending levels.
26:01It was a right-wing extremist wish list that would hurt the American people.
26:09In the caucus meeting yesterday, we laid out five different reasons, substantively, why we were strongly opposed to this partisan Republican spending bill and why that position should be reflected on the House floor as it was in defense of the American people.
26:34The partisan Republican spending bill cut funding for veterans, cut funding for health care, and cut funding for nutritional assistance.
26:46It represented an across-the-board cut as it relates to non-defense discretionary funding important to the health, safety, and economic well-being of the American people.
26:59The partisan Republican spending bill was an attack on families, veterans, and seniors.
27:07The bill that was strongly opposed by House Democrats is a power grab that further unleashes and entrenches Elon Musk's efforts to take a chainsaw to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the priorities of the American people.
27:27And there is an alternative for the Senators, Democrats, and Republicans to consider.
27:36It's a four-week, clean, continuing resolution that gives both the House and the Senate, Democrats and Republicans, the ability to try to reach an agreement that actually meets the needs of the country and does not hurt everyday Americans.
27:57If the message is, you guys stand with the American people on their side, House Democrats did that, but if Senate Democrats support this, it's going to muddle that message.
28:17It's going to look like Democrats are divided on this thing.
28:19How are you going to make it clear to the American people that this isn't a Democrats-divided narrative in Washington, that they're confusing it about how Democrats should act in this moment when they've got two Senators against them?
28:50And every bad thing that now happens with Doge and Donald Trump, Elon Musk, it can go back to this vote.
28:56So we're asking Senate Democrats to vote no.
28:57Can you talk a little bit about your conversation with Schumer about keeping the caucus together the way you did?
29:27Thank you. I appreciate it.