Transcription
Well, at the end of a day that began with David Remnik asking the question in the New Yorker, "Have you ever in your life encountered a character as wretched as Donald Trump?" Donald Trump delivered that character to millions of Americans tonight in a 15-minute shouted speech from the White House. Donald Trump's shouting seems to indicate he has not yet learned how microphones actually work. America's worst public speaker struggled mightily reading a teleprompter full of lies tonight. His speech, if we can call it that.
In it, Donald Trump said that when he took office, quote, "Inflation was the worst in the history of our country." That is a lie. A typical Trump lie. Inflation was at 3% when Donald Trump took office. Inflation is at 3% right now.
Donald Trump said that when he took office, we had quote transgender for everybody. That would mean that Donald Trump is transgender. That would mean that everybody is transgender. It is, of course, Trumpian madness. We did not have transgender for everybody.
Donald Trump said, "I was elected in a landslide." That is a lie. Donald Trump won by 1.5% of the vote.
Donald Trump said they released violent felons, meaning the Biden administration. No president in history has released more violent felons in one day than Donald Trump did on his inauguration day when he pardoned every violent felon who attacked the capital on January 6th for him to try to overturn a presidential election for him.
Donald Trump said that tariffs is quote my favorite word. Donald Trump lied when he said we made a lot more money because of tariffs. We didn't make any money because of tariffs. America made no money because of that. The Trump tariffs paid to the United States Treasury have all been paid in the United States by Americans. The federal government has simply taken money away from Americans through the Trump tariffs. Americans have had to take money out of their pockets to pay for the Trump tariffs in this country. This is the first time that Donald Trump made a public reference to tariffs without telling the lie that foreign countries pay his tariffs.
And Donald Trump lied about the Democrats saying Democrats are demanding increases in health insurance costs. Donald Trump delivered his speech in a monotone anger. He seemed to be angry at the truth. Joining us now for the Democratic response is the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeff. Thank you very much for joining us tonight. Uh, please, just I I want to offer you an open opportunity to respond to that speech in any way you choose.
>> Well, it's great to be with you. It was an unhinged speech that was of course untethered from reality and truth. You know, Donald Trump has made things worse for the American people. He refuses to acknowledge uh that the tariffs that he is solely responsible for have actually increased costs on everyday Americans by thousands of dollars per year. At the same time, when it comes to this health care crisis, it's one that Republicans have created. It was Donald Trump's one big ugly bill that enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. In that same bill, they ripped food away from hungry children, seniors, and veterans. And all of this was done so that Donald Trump and Republicans could reward their billionaire donors with massive tax breaks, which they've now made permanent. At the same period of time, it was Donald Trump who promised to lower the high cost of living on day one, to lower costs on day one. Those aren't my words. Those are his words. But he broke that promise. And life isn't getting more affordable in the United States of America. It's getting more expensive. And that is the problem that Donald Trump refuses to confront.
>> He said, and these were his exact words, "Democrats are demanding increases in health insurance costs."
>> It's the most ridiculous thing in the world, and everybody knows it. The overwhelming majority of the American people support the Democratic position, which is to make sure that we are driving down health care costs in part by ensuring that we extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits so that tens of millions of Americans don't experience dramatically increased health insurance premiums, co-pays, and deductibles. The problem that we've confronted is that Donald Trump and the Republicans are blocking our efforts to try to protect the healthcare of the American people. But earlier today, of course, we were successful in reaching the 218 signatures necessary to hit the discharge petition threshold where where we will now force an up or down vote on extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years.
Now, you know, I saw some coverage uh about the discharge petition today, which I have to say is an extraordinary achievement by the Democrats in the minority to be able to do that ever. Uh, and now you're on a series of discharge petitions after the successful one uh to get the Epstein files. Uh, when the discharge petition for the Epstein files was being considered in the House and when it was getting close to the required number of signatures, all the coverage of that story indicated that it would there was it didn't really matter because the Senate would kill that bill. The Senate would kill the Epstein bill. As it happens, the Senate passed it unanimously. Uh, tonight, people are saying the same thing again. They're saying, "Well, if the House gets this discharge petition, it doesn't have a chance in the Senate." Uh, we have seen that prediction be very, very wrong already this year. Uh, do you think it's possible that the way this story develops day by day, week by week, uh, and this discharge petition vote in the House is now weeks away in January, that by the time we get to that vote, we could be in a different political landscape and the Senate will definitely be in a different political landscape by then?
Well, Republicans are on the run right now. They're losing elections all across the country. The American people are em are rejecting their extremism and embracing the Democratic agenda to drive down the high cost of living, fix our broken health care system, and of course, extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. Abraham Lincoln, as you know, Lawrence, once made the observation that public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed. And we know that public sentiment is on our side in terms of extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits and decisively confronting the Republican health care crisis that is devastating working-class Americans, middle-class Americans, and everyday Americans. And so we know both that the votes exist to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits in a straightforward way consistent with our legislation, a three-year extension in the House, and that there's already a bipartisan majority in the Senate that had previously voted in support of a three-year extension. And as public pressure continues to mount, particularly after the House acts, we believe that there's real opportunity to get this done.
So, uh, the current speaker, Mike Johnson, is, uh, on his way to setting a record, uh, for the most discharge petitions uh succeeding against him. Uh, let's listen to what he said today about his control of the House.
Have you lost control of the house?
>> I have not lost control of the house.
>> Uh, your reaction to that.
>> And you know what was interesting, Lawrence, is that he went on to say uh that this is the narrowest majority that any party has ever had in modern political history. It's probably the only truthful thing that he said in that back and forth. And the reality is that's been the case throughout the entirety of the year. But Mike Johnson to start this year started to, you know, brag about the fact that they've got some historic mandate and that the American people were ready to embrace their extremism. Nothing can be further from the truth. And things have been falling apart over the last several months clearly and that was accelerated by the decisive defeat by Democrats of Republicans all across the country up and down the ballot.
Now, to your point about the discharge petition, what's been interesting is that we've basically had three successive weeks of Democratic le discharge petitions in partnership with a handful of Republicans behaving in a principal way uh that have been successful. First, it was a discharge petition that enabled the Epstein files to be released as mandated by the legislation compelling the Department of Justice to do exactly what the survivors have been asking for so there can be transparency and accountability. Then last week, 20 Republicans joined Democrats in successfully moving legislation uh that wiped out Donald Trump's executive order, which took away collective bargaining rights from more than a million hardworking federal employees. That legislation passed the House and is now sitting in the Senate. This week, of course, we've achieved the 218 signatures necessary to force an up or down vote on extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits. So, you've had three successful discharge petitions over the last 3 weeks. That's more, Lawrence, as you know, than in the last 30 years combined. So, Mike Johnson has already broken a record.