On Tuesday, House Democrat leadership held a press briefing following a leak regarding war plans with Yemen.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good morning. Always pleased to be joined with the Vice Chair of the Democratic Caucus,
00:10Ted Lieu. Many of our – we just left a successful caucus meeting and had a productive conversation
00:16today. Many of our members will be heading to Tucson tomorrow to pay respects for our
00:21colleague Raul Grijalva. His legacy for clean air, clean water, and a strong economy for
00:27working people will be greatly missed. House Democrats spent last week talking to our constituents
00:34back home, and despite Donald Trump's promise to lower costs that they face, it has not
00:42become any easier for anyone to buy groceries. Tariffs are making everyday goods more expensive
00:49and illegal cuts are threatening the services that people rely on. And it's clear the
00:56Republican recession is becoming more and more likely, and it will make things even
01:02worse. The cost of living will be too high and we'll start to see more layoffs. People
01:09will lose their jobs, potentially their homes, and their health care. And the Republican
01:15budget cutting $880 billion from Medicaid will make health care more expensive, especially
01:21for people who are out of work because of the Republican recession. It didn't have
01:26to be this way. Donald Trump inherited a growing economy and falling inflation, but in eight
01:32weeks he's made it worse across the board. Meanwhile, House Republicans are turning a
01:38blind eye to the economy while it's going off the cliff. House Democrats are focused
01:44on bringing down the cost of living and stopping these Republican cuts to Medicaid. Vice Chair
01:51Ted Lieu. Thank you, Chair Magular. Secretary of Defense Pete Hexeth should resign. He recklessly
01:59texted operational details of military strikes, including time, place, location and sequencing
02:05of those strikes to a journalist. Had that information gotten to the Houthis, American
02:12pilots could have been shot down, Navy sailors could have been targeted. His reckless actions
02:17endangered the lives of American troops, endangered our national security, and makes
02:22it so that our allies don't want to share sensitive, classified information with us
02:27anymore. In addition, CIGNO is not approved for government use, especially for this kind
02:34of use. Before entering politics, I had a secret security clearance. I served an active
02:40duty in the U.S. military. And when you go to a secure facility, the first thing they
02:45make you do is they make you put your phones outside the facility. So you can't have
02:50our top national security professionals using an app that's commercially available and
02:55not authorized for this use to be discussing these kinds of war plans. They never should
03:01have been on that CIGNO chat to begin with. And they made it worse by having a journalist
03:07on that chat. These are reckless actions by Secretary of Defense. And he also made it
03:12worse. Instead of accepting responsibility, he lied to the American people. He said this
03:17was all a hoax when confronted by a reporter. Well, the White House confirmed that these
03:23CIGNO chats were authentic. Instead of apologizing to the American people, Hexet lied to American
03:29people. The cover-up is even worse. Actually, I don't think the cover-up is worse. This
03:33whole thing is really, really bad. It shows how not serious these national security professionals
03:40take on national security. Hexet needs to resign. And everyone on that text chain needs
03:45to go take some courses on how to deal with national security classified information.
03:50Questions? Nick? When Democrats were back in their districts last week, were constituents
03:59supportive of the votes that you took on government funding a week and a half or so ago? When
04:06We were back in our districts. I want to thank the Democratic Policy and Communications Group.
04:12We also participated, all of us, in Medicaid Day of Actions, having roundtables, discussion,
04:18press conferences surrounding the $880 billion that House Republicans want to take from Medicaid.
04:24We overwhelmingly heard from our constituents the need to protect health care back home.
04:32With respect to the CR vote, we heard lots of support for our actions. Our constituents,
04:40my constituents, understand the difficulties that the Trump administration poses, how they
04:45want to gut programs that help people. And blessing that by voting for a CR didn't seem
04:53like the right approach. Michael? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Leader Scalise announced yesterday
05:04that the House will be voting on their ISIS bill to dilute the power of national injunctions
05:11in the wake of Judge Goldberg's national injunction on the alien, the deportation to El Salvador.
05:20I want to get your thoughts on that particular piece of legislation. I want to get your thoughts
05:24on House Republican attacks on Judge Goldberg on national injunctions when they supported
05:30them during the Biden administration. I'd love to hear Vice Chair Luce's thoughts as
05:34a member of the Judiciary Committee. Yeah, I'll defer to the Judiciary Committee member
05:38here, but look, they celebrated some of these rulings in Texas, in North Texas, when it
05:47meant not allowing overtime pay for employees. They supported these when it meant delays
05:55for individuals with DACA status. They supported these lower court rulings then, but now they
06:01don't support them when a lower court doesn't rule in their favor. The Supreme Court justice,
06:09the Supreme Court putting out special notice indicating there is a way to combat this.
06:16This is the appellate process. Let the courts go through their work. A free and fair judiciary
06:23is all we've ever wanted. I just don't understand why House Republicans don't share our goals.
06:32You know who appointed Judge Goldberg? It was a Republican president. He was nominated
06:38by a Republican president. He is a conservative judge, and he basically said, look, you can't
06:44just do this because you've got due process that needs to be met, and why is that so important?
06:51So we're all against deporting violent gang members who are not documented, but how do
06:58you know that that person is a violent gang member who is not documented? You have to
07:03have due process. What if you got the wrong person? That is the whole point of all this.
07:08If the law doesn't apply to you, then it doesn't apply to you, but the only way you can figure
07:13that out is if you have due process, and that's what Judge Boasberg is saying. You
07:17just have to have a process of figuring out you've got the right people, and the Trump
07:21administration did not have that process. In terms of nationwide injunctions, Chair
07:26Magular is right. If you don't like it, you appeal it, and then you have an appellate
07:30court weigh in, and then if you don't like that, you have the Supreme Court weigh in.
07:33That's how we do it in our system of justice.
07:38Yesterday, Secretary Noem suggested getting rid of FEMA, that that was something the administration
07:44is considering. Obviously, this comes as Congress is considering Governor Newsom's $40 billion
07:50request to recover from the wildfires, North Carolina is still recovering from the flooding,
07:54so on and so forth. I'm curious for your response to that, and have you had any conversations
08:01with Republican leadership on when, perhaps, this aid ask could come up for a potential
08:08vote? Is it looking like it would be a single bill? Would it be included in reconciliation?
08:12Do you have any insight?
08:14I don't have any more insight on timing or what Republican leadership has planned. What
08:20I would respond to is, as a Californian, both of us feel natural disasters that are national
08:28in scope deserve a nationwide response from Congress. The House and Senate, time and time
08:35again, hurricanes, floods, fires, earthquakes, we come to the aid of our neighbors and friends
08:42who are going through tragedy. This is no different than that. Floods in North Carolina
08:49deserve the same response as fires in Los Angeles. Having FEMA there is incredibly important
08:58That said, California has amazing professionals who do this work in the disaster and recovery
09:06space. Smaller states do not. It is actually to the benefit of smaller states and more
09:12rural communities that we have a strong and robust FEMA. I hope our colleagues on the
09:19other side of the aisle understand that, because when a tragedy comes and they want help for
09:26their constituents, it's something that we value and hold dear, and I hope that they
09:32do as well.
09:35Mother Nature doesn't look at your party registration before she strikes, and natural disasters
09:40affect all Americans. This past December, we did disaster aid relief. Some of the states
09:46that got that include Oklahoma and South Carolina, and when you have, as Chairman Aguilar said,
09:52large states like California, we have the resources to address natural disasters, but
09:58smaller states do not, and so FEMA is critically important to a lot of these smaller states,
10:04some of them are rural states, and I really hope, as Chairman Aguilar said, our Republicans
10:09understand that when you have their vast resources of the federal government, that benefits all
10:15Americans when natural disasters strike.
10:21Now that the dust has kind of settled from the government shutdown fight, how do you
10:26feel about Chuck Schumer's leadership? Do you still think he's the right person to lead
10:29Senate Democrats?
10:31Both the Vice Chair and I are very pleased with our senators, Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff,
10:38voting against the CR. Our fight ahead is on how we protect Medicaid and Social Security.
10:46You've seen now, Washington Post article today, the Social Security lines, people aren't
10:52answering. Hours, we're hearing from constituents waiting hours and hours on hold as the Trump
11:00administration is ushering out employees, frontline employees who are doing this critical
11:04work across the country, responding to individuals. It's imperative that we ensure Social Security,
11:14Medicare, Medicaid. That's the next fight ahead, and I'm confident that our partners and friends
11:21in the Senate are going to lock arms with us and protect Medicaid and so many of these
11:27vital programs while holding the Trump administration accountable.
11:30Do you have confidence in him?
11:32Look, I have confidence in the leadership in the House and the Senate. I have confidence
11:40in the leadership of Hakeem Jeffries guiding the House Democratic Caucus. That's our focus.
11:45I'm elected by them. I'm not running for Senate leadership of any kind. They don't need me
11:51to opine on any of that. I'm confident in House leadership of focusing on protecting
11:55these vital programs and economic interests that Americans have.
11:59Mike?
12:00On the debt ceiling, House Republicans have made clear that they want to put that into
12:05reconciliation, but there have been some recent reports that the IRS revenues are coming
12:10in lower than normal, partly because of the gutting of the agency by Elon Musk. But regardless
12:18of why, if that does happen, there's the potential that you would hit the debt ceiling before
12:24reconciliation was ready to go, in which case it might hit the floor and need Democratic
12:29votes. Have there been discussions within the Caucus about that possibility and what
12:33you would ask for in return for your votes for a clean debt ceiling?
12:38Leader Jeffries will guide those conversations with Budget Ranking Member Boyle and I'm sure
12:46Ways and Means Ranking Member Neal. We'll have those Caucus family discussions, but
12:51I think we all subscribe to the Nancy Pelosi model that nothing should be given away for free.
12:59Thank you. Do you think that there's an appetite from House Republicans to join Democrats in
13:05an investigation of the Trump administration official's use of the Signal app to discuss
13:10foreign plans?
13:12We believe, and just like the Vice Chair said, we believe in accountability for these decisions.
13:17These are absolutely reckless national security decisions that put our brave men and women
13:23on the front line. It put them at risk. They could try to whitewash this as they have other
13:29crises, but this is something that is very, very top of mind for us. I hope our Republican
13:35counterparts also believe in accountability and oversight. We'll see how the Senate hearing
13:42goes today, two individuals on that text thread testifying, also testifying tomorrow here
13:48in the House. So we're curious as to their answers, but our guess is that they're probably
13:54going to minimize their reckless behavior. But this is all about these individuals who,
14:00many of them were unqualified in the first place. This is about their ability to bend the
14:06knee to Donald Trump and to do whatever he wants. That's why they are in these positions,
14:13and they will continue to be in these positions until Donald Trump gets tired of them, or
14:19they start speaking up and speaking their mind. I'm not confident that either of those
14:24are going to happen.
14:26National security should not be a partisan issue, so the Republicans absolutely should
14:30join Democrats in having an investigation. And I want to note, there's also reporting
14:34today that one of the participants in a Signal chat was added when he was physically in Russia.
14:41That's what the reporting says. And the problem with using a phone with an unapproved app
14:48to discuss secret information like this is that not only do you have potentially these
14:54phones, they would be hacked, but the carrier system itself is problematic. So a few years
15:00ago, I did an investigation that showed that, actually 60 minutes of investigation, that
15:07with the phones, because you have to communicate right through carriers, there is a flaw in
15:13these systems that allows people to intercept what's happening when the phones are transmitting
15:20with each other through these carrier networks. So you can't really fix that problem, no matter
15:25how amazing your phone or your app may or may not be. It is a network problem. And again,
15:31if any foreign intelligence service exploited that network problem or exploited any of these
15:36phones that were used in the Signal chat, they could have given that information to
15:40Houthis and they could have shot down a pilot. And that's why what happened was so reckless
15:44and that's why Hexeth needs to resign.
15:47Andrew?
15:48Are Democrats going to be as willing to oppose a debt ceiling increase as they were with
15:55the government funding bill?
15:57Are they going to be?
15:58Are Democrats planning to stand together to try to use a debt ceiling bill as some sort of leverage?
16:05We've seen time and time again House Democrats standing together, first on reconciliation
16:11against the $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid two weeks ago, against support for a budget
16:19that allows Donald Trump and Elon Musk unfettered access to move money around within the federal
16:25government. Our expectation and hope is that we will still continue to stand together on
16:31the important issues of the day, which include raising the debt limit as well as funding
16:36government beyond September 30th. House Democrats stand united to look out for the American
16:42people who are struggling with the day-to-day costs that they face. That is front and center.
16:48That's what we're focused on and that's who we're fighting for. Thank you so much.