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Did Donald Trump steal $17 trillion? And I'm not exaggerating. Donald Trump said that he received $17 trillion from tariffs and from other countries. But as far as I know, the Treasury Department doesn't have this money. We know from the budget committees and the appropriation committees and the finance committees in the House and the Senate that they don't have $17 trillion.
Now, we're in a government shutdown caused by Donald Trump and these MAGA Republicans. So folks, if there's $17 trillion out there, not only does it solve everything, but it improves everything. It makes everybody's life so much better. Look, we would really be in a golden age if there's 17 trillion dollars. It would help the farmers. It would help health care for everybody. It would help education for everybody. Remember when Donald Trump talked about those Doge rebate checks for $5,000 or the tariff rebate checks? Heck, maybe we give like extra dividends. If there's 17 trillion dollars out there, let's give it to the people, right?
I mean, this is what the talking point is from Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans and JB Vance. They keep on saying that they've been so great that they have $17 trillion and they're somehow connecting that to the shutdown, which is kind of counterintuitive to me because if they've got 17 trillion, that's the solve. Here, this is what just to show you. This is Donald Trump saying it again. He says it every day, but here, play this clip. And we have over $17 trillion. Albert, can you believe these numbers? So Biden had less than a trillion for four years. We have over 17 trillion for essentially eight months. Pretty amazing.
>> Wow. $17 trillion in 8 months. Look, that's that's great. But where is it? Where's the money? Did he Is it in his own bank accounts? I don't know. I'm going to call in uh the Democratic ranking member of the House Oversight Committee who's just been crushing it there. Congress member Robert Garcia. I want to talk about your other work bringing out some additional Epstein file batches. I want you're doing great work. That social media account you're running is amazing. But this is I think a serious oversight issue. $17 trillion is apparently missing right now and we're in a government shutdown. Trump keeps saying he's got 17 trillion. Where did it go? Who the hell knows?
I mean, he first of all, Donald Trump is living in a fantasy land. And if there is 17 trillion dollars somewhere, uh the government doesn't know about it. Uh no, none of our committees have access to it. Treasury has no idea what the hell he's talking about. And so we are, you're absolutely right, we're in a government shutdown right now. Donald Trump could actually reopen the government back up, extend health care subsidies, fix America's public schools, uh provide uh some subsidies to actually lower the cost of goods across this country. But but we know that Donald Trump is a liar. He's either a liar or he stashed away some money somewhere in some magical way and there's even more corruption happening. And so look, the media needs to also get on the game here. If Donald Trump is claiming that there's there's $17 trillion somewhere, why isn't he being asked the question of where that money is every single minute of the day? And so this this man is the the the most corrupt person to obviously ever be president. He lies. He steals. He cheats. Now there's apparently $17 trillion somewhere that nobody knows about. And so we we've got to ask the questions. And I think that's at this moment during the shutdown, the fact that Donald Trump wants to claim that things are better for the get getting better for the American public is a joke. Costs are going up, health care costs are going up, the grocery bill is going up. And so that's why we're in this fight because we are saying hell no to more tax cuts for billionaires. And let's actually lower the cost of health care, which if we stay strong as Democrats, we can actually hopefully negotiate and get done.
>> right? I mean, one of the arguments if you try to understand what the heck the MAGA Republicans are even saying when you actually address honestly and not with their spin in their propaganda the issue of the Affordable Care Act uh tax credits, they ultimately say the issue is that it's too expensive. I mean, they make up a bunch of stuff about transgender people. I'm not going down that route because why repeat their stupid lies? But let's accept their the argument that they make when you put all that other crap aside. It's that the tax credits are too expensive and that the government shouldn't be helping people get health care. We could help the billionaires, but we can't help the that's their argument. So, if there's $17 trillion though, you now have the money. What I saw was that we ran a $2 trillion deficit the last fiscal year and last month we ran a $345 billion deficit. But actually, we're in a surplus situation and all of this gets the farmers, right? construction work, manufacts committee, doesn't he want to know where the 17 trillion dollars is because it solves everything that what else would oversight be doing other than oversight of 65% of our GDP?
Look, I mean, yeah, and and it looks like if this keeps going, we're going to have to investigate where the hell these 17 trillion dollars are. Uh, no question. Because this is ridiculous that Republicans are the hypoc the hypocrisy, right? I mean, Republicans are saying on one hand, oh, there's not enough money for healthcare subsidies and then the other and and the other hand, they are stashing away money, giving it to their billionaire friends, doing all these tax breaks, the increasing exponentially the national debt. So, they could really care less about working people. What they really are focused on is giving their billionaire buddies and donors more of hardworking Americans money. All the labor, all the money that folks are trying to save, they make the at work is being given away as large corporations, the billionaires. And Donald Trump is out here, of course, talking about money that's coming in, which we know was just a farce. If if there's if there's actually that much money, $17 trillion somewhere, show it to us. let's actually spend it to actually lower health care costs for the American public. But Donald Trump is a liar and Donald Trump is corrupt. And so what he wants to do right now is use do everything he can to put out guards across the country to send the military to cities to cut benefits for people, which is why Democrats and this moment have to be in this fight and not give an inch and stop doing what some of these Senate Democrats are doing, which is caving in to Leader Thoon over there and to Donald Trump.
Here's another House oversight issue. I'm I'm I'm just gonna I'm just gonna I'm just going to let it all off my chest right now. All that stupid gold in the White House, the 24 karat this, gold this, gold that, he posts and brags, I've got gold everywhere. And then the golden ballroom, which is purportedly, he claims being funded by by companies or corporations, although who's paid for the architectural plans? Who's paid for the cutting of these trees? And to me, it's a symbol of all of his corruption right there that they want to build a structure three times as big as the White House itself. So like to me, are foreign companies putting their, you know, investing? Does Qar get their name? Is it the Qatari ballroom now? Like like what is actually happening with this thing? Because I know the American people are like, we're out here wondering if we're going to be able to pay rent and this guy's freaking building 90,000 square foot ballrooms. like what's up with that?
>> Well, stay tuned because we're we're asking those same questions. And so, look, this this idea one that even even if even if there were uh donations being made to build some of this, and of course, Donald Trump likes to claim, oh, no, I'm I'm I'm paying for a lot of this and there's going to be no public money. The fact that he's going to sell off parts of the people's house, he's going to put the names of donors or companies or who god knows who on the wall of the ballroom. That monstrosity shouldn't be there in the first place. It's going to completely damage the of course the not just the lawn of the White House but that that entire campus. You already seeing what he's done to the rose garden into that damn patio that he's built out there and cemented the whole thing. What he's doing to the White House is disgraceful. But what underneath that is corruption. There is no question that this ballroom and what's happening there. We have questions. We need to know who's involved. Are foreign governments paying for any of this? And so oversight's already working on asking the right questions and an investigation into what's happening at the White House as it relates to this construction because it's it is outrageous and a disgrace that that's happening right now.
>> You know, I know you got to go soon, but last question. You've been releasing a you've been getting your hands on a lot more of these Epstein files. You released the third batch. It was last week and we've learned a lot more of, you know, Elon Musk's name was mentioned about potentially going to the island. At least that was on the Epstein side of it. You know, we'll have the question is did he go? We should know
>> exactly. You know, Bannon's name, you know,
>> Bannon's name was on it and we know Bannon said that he was terrified of the stuff that Epstein may have known about Trump during the first administration. So, where is this going? And obviously it does seem like they don't want to swear in Congresswoman elect Rahalva despite all of the precedent of swearing in people because of the discharge petition um that she would lend the last signature needed. So where are we right now from the oversight perspective?
So, we are obviously continuing to build uh a case, right? Um and we're still we're gathering information, talking to whistleblowers, interviewing people from across um that have been involved in in in this Epstein case, talking to survivors. And what's next and what's what's critical for us moving forward is the bank and financial records. And so, that's something that we know we know known from day one that we need to get. So, for us, it's getting all of the files from the DOJ, which are under subpoena, which right now, we have no idea why the hell Pam Bonnie just doesn't do her job and release him. Well, she's protecting Trump. That's probably what she's trying to do, but she needs to get that information to us. And legally, she's required to do so. The second piece is we're working with all of the financial institutions. We need to get all the financial records. Who paid Jeffrey Epstein? Where how did that money move? Who was actually part of this broader scheme and sex trafficking ring? All of these questions are out there and for us to move our investigation forward. Donald Trump's got to live up this campaign promise. He said he'd release the files and now he's not. And that's because clearly this is a White House cover up and he's hiding something and oversight is going to push every single day till we get the truth.
Congressman Garcia, let me just say on behalf of a lot of Americans, it is refreshing to see people fighting and you're fighting in your position on the as the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. It's like, yes, this is what we wanted. Anyway, I know you got to go. It's a busy day for Democrats, but what? The Republicans aren't showing up today, though. It's just just the Democrats.
>> Republicans. Oh, yeah. Republicans are anywhere to be found. We We're working. We're meeting. We're talking to federal workers. At the end of the day, Republicans need to be here. They should have been here over the last few days. And it's it's shameful that they don't that they're going to allow health care premiums to go up. People are going to start getting letters saying that their health care costs are going to go up in the next few weeks because Republicans could care less about them and only want to focus on their billionaire friends.
>> Just what that's wild. They're not there, right? They're gone. They're not just I want to be clear to the American people because I don't I don't think any people really know this. Republicans are Congress members are not on Capitol Hill today. That's
>> right. And they haven't been for the last I mean we should have been here all week working on this. nowhere to be found.
>> Anyway, thanks for joining us. Congress member Garcia, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. We appreciate you.
>> Thank you
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