Inside With Jen Psaki [7PM] 10_1_2023 _ BREAKING NEWS Today Oct 1, 2023_4
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00:00 former Trump lawyer, Michael Cohen.
00:01 He blew the lid off Trump's shady business dealings.
00:04 He's on the witness list for this trial,
00:05 and he could come face to face with this former boss
00:08 for the first time in years.
00:10 We are awaiting remarks from President Biden
00:21 at any moment from the White House,
00:23 and when he's ready, we'll take that to you live.
00:26 But in the meantime, I just wanna level set
00:28 on what we've seen in Washington
00:30 over the last couple of days.
00:32 One Republican congressman said that the last week was like,
00:35 quote, "Riding a mechanical bull."
00:37 That's quite a visual, but pretty accurate.
00:40 The president is going to weigh in
00:41 after Congress managed to pass a short-term funding bill
00:44 that will keep the government open for the next 47 days.
00:47 Now, preventing a government shutdown is obviously good news,
00:51 and so is the fact that the final bill
00:53 didn't include any of the devastating cuts
00:55 to domestic programs that had been on the table.
00:58 So for the time being, as of right now,
01:01 House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has managed
01:03 to avoid a complete disaster of Republicans' own making
01:06 by relying on Democratic votes
01:08 to get it over the finish line.
01:10 Congratulations are in order, I mean, I guess.
01:13 But before you all think,
01:14 "Wow, maybe government is functioning again in Washington,"
01:17 not quite, because even though McCarthy
01:20 tried to please his fringe right
01:22 by not including funding for Ukraine,
01:24 there's now the question of whether or not
01:26 he will keep his speakership.
01:28 Earlier today, Congressman Matt Gaetz announced
01:30 he is going to put forward a motion to vacate this week,
01:33 which is basically a motion
01:34 to kick McCarthy out of his job.
01:37 - I do intend to file a motion
01:40 to vacate against Speaker McCarthy this week.
01:42 I think we need to rip off the Band-Aid.
01:44 I think we need to move on with new leadership
01:47 that can be trustworthy.
01:49 - For his part, McCarthy said today, "Bring it on."
01:53 So is there an alternative candidate for speaker
01:56 who could get enough votes?
01:57 Who knows?
01:58 But remember, it took 15 rounds last time
02:01 for McCarthy to get elected.
02:03 So another round or 15 rounds of votes for speakership
02:07 could become an incredibly distracting time suck.
02:10 Of course, Matt Gaetz doesn't really care much about that.
02:13 This also raises the question
02:15 of what else Kevin McCarthy might agree to
02:17 in order to hold onto his speakership
02:19 ahead of another spending fight.
02:22 Those members who wanted to slash the budget
02:23 of the Justice Department
02:24 in retaliation for investigations into Donald Trump,
02:28 they will still be there, maybe even more empowered.
02:31 Those members insisting on hard right immigration reform,
02:34 they aren't going anywhere either.
02:35 In many ways, this continuing resolution
02:38 is just kicking the can down the road,
02:40 setting up a similar fight
02:42 where hundreds of thousands of government employees,
02:44 recipients of government programs for low-income families,
02:47 parents with kids in Head Start,
02:49 and yes, travelers over the holidays
02:52 will again be riding that mechanical bull
02:55 waiting for a resolution right before Thanksgiving.
02:57 Now, while some members like Congressman Don Bacon
03:00 acknowledged that in the House,
03:01 they are, quote, "tired of effing around
03:03 "with these whack jobs,
03:04 "not holding back there, Congressman Bacon,"
03:06 this entire saga has been just another example
03:09 of the dysfunction of Republican governance
03:12 and the absence of leadership.
03:14 It wasn't just the House this week.
03:16 We also watched a Republican debate
03:18 where the most memorable moments,
03:20 to the degree that there were any at all,
03:22 are a toss-up between Nikki Haley and Tim Scott
03:25 screaming over each other about curtains
03:27 and Chris Christie using a cringey prepared line
03:30 to attack Donald Trump for not appearing at the debate.
03:34 The guy who was leading the race by more than 20 points
03:36 ahead of all the candidates who were on that stage combined
03:39 brought us this bizarre scene,
03:40 standing in front of non-union workers at a non-union plant,
03:44 arguing he alone was the candidate in favor of workers,
03:47 that you heard that right, during a UAW strike.
03:50 Trump is also still facing 91 felony counts
03:52 and was found by a judge to have committed fraud.
03:55 And he is continuing to encourage political violence.
03:59 None of that was discussed in the debate stage.
04:01 There was also a seven-hour-long impeachment hearing
04:03 on Thursday, just days before a potential shutdown,
04:06 where even Fox News favorite Jonathan Turley,
04:09 a key witness for Republicans, told lawmakers, quote,
04:11 "I do not believe that the current evidence
04:13 "would support articles of impeachment
04:15 "and that even some of the evidence
04:17 "that Republicans gathered actually favored President Biden."
04:21 So, all in all, a real bang-up week for the Republican brand.
04:25 But the problem is their dysfunction impacts all of us.
04:29 And 47 days from now,
04:31 will Republicans make funding the government contingent
04:33 on deep cuts to social safety nets?
04:36 Will it be about implementing draconian policies
04:38 at the border?
04:39 And will McCarthy continue to cut out Ukraine funding
04:42 at the behest of MAGA Republicans?
04:45 Members of Congress can breathe a sigh of relief for now,
04:47 for this moment, but in just a month and a half,
04:49 we could be right back where this whole mess started.
04:52 Joining me now is Democratic Senator Chris Murphy
04:54 of Connecticut.
04:55 So, Senator, we are waiting for the president to speak,
04:58 but you're the perfect person to level set for us here.
05:00 I wanna start with the news from Matt Gaetz this morning,
05:03 that he's going to offer a motion
05:05 to vacate the speakership this week.
05:06 He wants McCarthy removed.
05:08 You, of course, have not been in the House for a long time,
05:11 but you do have to work with the chaotic House.
05:13 How concerned are you that an already kind of wild House
05:16 could become even more difficult to work with?
05:19 - Well, listen, this is an ongoing disaster
05:25 for the American people.
05:28 Republicans are simply not fit to govern.
05:30 They're not serious people.
05:32 And while the House of Representatives,
05:36 Republican caucus is gonna go through
05:37 another round of naval gazing,
05:39 deciding who's gonna lead them,
05:41 people out there are hurting, right?
05:42 We still have crises that we need to tackle,
05:44 whether it be the record number of people
05:46 dying of overdoses, the continued gun violence crisis,
05:50 and House Republicans are gonna spend
05:52 the next couple weeks arguing amongst themselves
05:55 as to who should be the next speaker.
05:58 And, well, I'm glad that we are not shutting down
06:01 the federal government.
06:02 What a low bar for House Republicans
06:06 that we celebrate the fact that they can just barely keep
06:09 the lights on with hours to go before a shutdown occurs.
06:13 McCarthy, obviously had to reach out
06:16 and get Democratic votes,
06:17 as he will have to do 45 days from now.
06:19 But as you mentioned, the price here is that he gave in
06:22 to Republican demands to cut Ukraine off.
06:24 And ultimately, American security is at risk
06:27 if we don't start funding Ukraine again.
06:30 And that will be one of the big fights
06:32 that we have to undertake over the next month and a half.
06:35 It's not enough to just keep the lights
06:37 on the federal government.
06:38 We actually have to live up
06:40 to our national security obligations.
06:42 And one of those is making sure
06:43 that Kiev doesn't become a Russian city.
06:45 - I wanna get to that.
06:47 And there's a lot at risk here.
06:49 I do wanna ask you, I mean, with that in mind,
06:51 there's rumors that Speaker McCarthy
06:53 could bring a funding bill for Ukraine to the floor.
06:55 He did at the last moment decide to work with Democrats
06:59 to keep the government open.
07:00 It could be worse, is what I'm saying.
07:02 Is there incentive to try to save McCarthy as speaker?
07:09 - So no matter who is the Speaker of the House,
07:12 no matter who's in charge of the Republican caucus,
07:15 the path to a majority in the House runs through Democrats
07:20 who actually want the federal government to operate
07:23 and wanna help Ukraine,
07:24 and a handful of more responsible Republicans.
07:28 So that's the problem here,
07:30 is that whether McCarthy's in charge or somebody else,
07:33 the governing majority in the House are Democrats
07:37 and a minority of Republicans.
07:41 I hope that McCarthy is gonna make good on his commitment
07:44 to bring a Ukraine supplemental funding bill
07:47 before the House, because what we know
07:49 is that it has the majority.
07:50 In the Senate and the House,
07:52 there's a commanding easy majority of members
07:55 who will support continued funding for Ukraine.
07:58 And my worry is, is that if we wait until the middle
08:02 or end of November to have this conversation
08:06 about whether we're still supporting Ukraine,
08:08 it may be too late for Ukraine by that point.
08:10 So my preference is in the next few weeks
08:13 to bring a supplemental funding bill before the Senate,
08:15 send that over to the House,
08:17 and really dare McCarthy to make the decision
08:21 to abandon Ukraine, even though he has a majority
08:24 of Republicans and Democrats who will support Ukraine.
08:28 - Are you worried at all that this potential threat
08:31 to his speakership could make him put pause
08:34 on the idea of bringing up this supplemental funding bill
08:38 that he's been rumored to be considering?
08:40 - Well, I'm concerned by the fact
08:45 that when it came down to it,
08:48 the only demand that McCarthy was willing to give into
08:53 that was coming from his hard right
08:55 was the demand to abandon Ukraine.
08:57 He stood up to them on their immigration demands,
09:00 he rejected their spending cuts,
09:02 but the one thing he did give into was this idea
09:06 that we should end American support for Ukraine,
09:09 which is, let's just be honest,
09:11 an invitation for Putin to march his army
09:13 straight into the rest of Ukraine.
09:15 It is an abandonment of the entire post-World War II order.
09:19 So that doesn't bode well for the future of Ukraine,
09:23 and it just means that those of us who believe
09:25 that this is a worthwhile fight
09:26 are gonna have to step up our advocacy efforts
09:29 in the next several weeks and months.
09:31 - You've been through, unfortunately,
09:33 a lot of these spending fights before,
09:35 government shutdowns before.
09:37 What do you think the next 45 days look like?
09:40 And is your expectation,
09:41 we're looking at a similar situation
09:45 in the lead up to Thanksgiving?
09:46 - I certainly worry that we're in for
09:53 a series of groundhog days
09:55 where we are just having the same fight
10:00 where McCarthy and these arsonist Republicans
10:03 bring us up to the precipice of shutdown over and over.
10:08 And of course, the reality is this is terrible
10:10 for the American economy.
10:12 If these hard right Republicans
10:14 claim to be fiscal conservatives,
10:16 it's just not fiscally conservative
10:18 to shut down the government
10:19 because we ultimately pay federal employees
10:22 who are furloughed when they come back to work.
10:24 But it also costs the American economy billions of dollars
10:28 when the federal government shuts down.
10:31 So I think the next year and a half
10:33 are just gonna be a series of ongoing disasters
10:37 in the House of Representatives.
10:39 And I think we're gonna have to try to do a better job
10:42 of making the case to them
10:43 that there's nothing fiscally conservative
10:45 about threatening shutdown
10:46 or actually going through a shutdown.
10:49 - It's all a reminder of the power of voting
10:51 and how important it is who's in charge.
10:53 Just to go to politics for a moment,
10:56 RFK Jr. is out with a new video
10:58 strongly hinting he could run for a third party ticket,
11:02 teasing a quote, "Major announcement."
11:03 We don't know what that means.
11:05 Do you worry that him running as an independent
11:08 or a third party could hurt President Biden
11:11 and the Democrats?
11:12 - I don't.
11:16 I mean, frankly, what you see is that the portions
11:19 of the electorate that are interested
11:21 in Robert Kennedy Jr.
11:24 tend to be coming from Donald Trump's
11:27 conspiracy theory base.
11:29 So if he's running as an independent,
11:31 I think that may end up hurting Donald Trump
11:34 or the Republican nominee more than Joe Biden.
11:37 I also think that the fascination
11:39 with RFK Jr.'s candidacy
11:41 was a bit of an elite media fascination.
11:45 I think ultimately voters know what the stakes are here
11:47 and you are gonna,
11:48 I think third party candidates
11:51 are not gonna be as big a deal come to general election
11:54 as folks may think.
11:55 People who support democracy,
11:58 who support Ukraine,
11:59 who support competence in government
12:01 are gonna understand that the only way
12:05 to preserve those things is to vote for Joe Biden.
12:09 - Senator Chris Murphy, thank you for encouraging people
12:11 to take a deep breath about that
12:13 and also worry about Ukraine funding,
12:14 which is a huge threat.
12:16 It was a pleasure talking to you today.
12:18 We've got our eyes on the White House
12:19 where we are awaiting remarks from President Biden
12:21 and we'll take you to that live when it happens.
12:23 Up next, I'll ask Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
12:26 how likely he thinks it is that Congress
12:28 can come to an agreement in the next six weeks or so
12:30 before government shuts down right before holiday travel.
12:33 Plus, as Donald Trump prepares to head to New York today,
12:36 lately House Republicans have had a hard time
12:38 holding up their end of the bargain.
12:40 Here's what else the President had to say
12:42 in his statement last night.
12:43 Quote, "We should never have been in this position
12:45 in the first place.
12:46 Just a few months ago, Speaker McCarthy and I
12:48 reached a budget agreement to avoid precisely
12:51 this type of manufactured crisis.
12:53 For weeks, extreme House Republicans
12:55 tried to walk away from that deal
12:57 by demanding drastic cuts that would have been devastating
12:59 for millions of Americans.
13:01 They failed."
13:02 Joining me now here on set
13:04 is Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
13:07 It's great to see you, Mr. Secretary.
13:09 Congratulations on your Iron Man.
13:10 That's quite a feat.
13:11 So I just want to start with the path forward here
13:13 because I think we can all breathe a sigh of relief,
13:15 but we're not far.
13:17 45 days, 47 days is not long
13:20 until we could face this again.
13:22 And we just heard this morning from Matt Gaetz
13:24 that he wants to challenge Speaker McCarthy's speakership,
13:27 which could put at risk his willingness
13:29 to work with Democrats.
13:30 How concerned are you about that potential threat
13:34 and what it could mean for being able
13:35 to negotiate with the House?
13:37 - Well, not only would the fact of a shutdown
13:39 had been incredibly damaging,
13:41 but just having that threat and that chaos
13:44 that goes with it dangling over us,
13:46 not just dangling over the administration,
13:48 but dangling over the American people is not helpful.
13:51 Now, we're going to keep our heads down,
13:52 keep doing the work.
13:53 As the president said,
13:54 people expect their government to work,
13:56 and that's what we do.
13:57 We're focused on getting the machinery of government
14:00 to work for people.
14:01 I started my week last week, Monday, in Nebraska.
14:04 We're working on a short line railroad
14:06 called the Cornhusker.
14:07 Very important for getting agricultural products
14:09 to where it's going.
14:10 Yes, it's perfect for Nebraska.
14:11 We're bringing $15 million there
14:13 to help improve supply chains and safety on the railroad.
14:16 Tuesday, I was at Denver International Airport,
14:18 working, highlighting the work that's going on there
14:21 to rearrange a taxiway that'll prevent
14:24 those runway incursions that we've been hearing about.
14:26 This is the kind of work that we all got into
14:29 this line of public service to do,
14:31 but as the week mounted,
14:33 we had to devote more and more of our time
14:34 to preparing for the possibility of a shutdown,
14:36 and that's time we'll never get back.
14:38 That's time the American people will never get back.
14:40 For people who plead fiscal conservatism,
14:43 the waste that is created by this fountain of chaos
14:47 that is today's House Republican conference
14:50 really does have a huge cost,
14:52 even when they don't get their way.
14:53 If they had gotten their way,
14:55 it would have been that much more damaging
14:56 to transportation systems, to the economy,
14:59 and to all of the services Americans count on.
15:01 Now, Wood, we're in this situation,
15:02 in all likelihood, in six weeks.
15:04 We're right before the Thanksgiving holidays,
15:06 the Christmas holidays,
15:07 or whatever holidays people may celebrate.
15:09 What is the risk a potential shutdown
15:11 or a shutdown at that time could pose to air travel?
15:15 - As you might imagine,
15:16 I see this largely in terms of transportation,
15:19 and this year, we've seen some of the heaviest
15:22 air travel numbers ever recorded.
15:24 Summer, TSA screened more passengers
15:27 than any time in American history.
15:28 So American travelers are back in the air,
15:30 which means more than ever, we need that TSA support.
15:33 We need that air traffic control support.
15:36 And the idea that you're gonna stop paying
15:38 air traffic controllers,
15:40 that you're gonna shut down the Air Traffic Control Academy
15:42 that is racing to get new staff on board,
15:44 which is not a simple process,
15:46 that you would do that right in time for the holidays
15:48 is madness.
15:50 There is no such thing as a good time for a shutdown.
15:52 - That's the worst.
15:53 - But it's a particularly bad time.
15:55 And it even goes to some of the infrastructure projects.
15:57 We're working on a project at Dallas, Love Field there,
15:59 upgrading the instrument landing system.
16:01 That work would halt.
16:03 The whole goal has been to get that project done
16:05 in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.
16:06 This could stop it in its tracks, and nobody wants this.
16:09 At least nobody out in the real world wants this.
16:12 So we really need the House Republicans
16:14 to first of all, come to terms with each other.
16:16 They seem to have trouble sorting out
16:17 their differences internally.
16:19 And then work with us, as by the way, it happened yesterday,
16:21 where the Democrats who were ready to work
16:23 the whole time with them provided the votes
16:25 to make sure that we avoided this shutdown,
16:27 kept the government running.
16:28 But we can't just lurch from threat to threat,
16:31 potential shutdown to potential shutdown.
16:33 Sooner or later, this drama has to end.
16:36 - It's very destabilizing for everyone.
16:38 Since you're here, and you are a military veteran,
16:41 I have to ask you about your reaction
16:43 to former President Trump's recent comments
16:45 implying that former chairman of the Joint Chiefs,
16:47 General Mark Milley, should be executed.
16:49 It's crazy every time I say that out loud.
16:51 My colleague, Von Hilliard, caught up with him on Friday
16:54 and asked him about it.
16:55 So let's listen to that, and then I'm gonna talk
16:56 to you about it on the other side.
16:58 - You actually-- - Well, General Milley,
16:59 what he did is really treasonous.
17:01 If you look at what he said to China,
17:04 he's either stupid or it's treason.
17:07 - But why suggest death? - Frankly, there are many people
17:08 that would call it treason.
17:10 - But why suggest death? - Thank you very much.
17:12 - It's alarming, not surprising,
17:16 but given you've served and you're a longtime public servant,
17:18 what is your reaction to that?
17:20 - The level of disrespect for the American military,
17:23 not to mention for the general,
17:26 is both shocking and not shocking.
17:28 I mean, look, this is part of a lifelong pattern
17:30 with the former president that I would argue
17:32 was first displayed when he faked a disability
17:35 in order to avoid having to go to Vietnam
17:37 and allowed, I assume, some working class person
17:40 to go in his place, and has continued ever since.
17:44 Made a name for himself by basically saying
17:49 that he did not respect John McCain
17:52 because he was a war hero.
17:54 And look, a lot of this, obviously, is to get attention,
17:58 and you hesitate to reward that.
18:00 On the other hand, we do, in fact, still have
18:02 some boundaries that matter in this country.
18:05 And one of them is that our regard for the military
18:07 and our respect for the military is nonpartisan,
18:10 it's nonpolitical, and it's universal.
18:13 And that is especially important
18:14 because that's part of how the military does their job.
18:17 I knew every time I put on that uniform,
18:19 every time I went to work, every time I got into a vehicle,
18:22 every time I went outside the wire,
18:24 that I was with men and women who were serving
18:26 and supporting each other and responsive
18:28 to a chain of command that was not about politics,
18:30 that did not break down because of our political differences.
18:35 This undermines that, it threatens that,
18:38 and it threatens it at a time when we need
18:41 those institutions that are still at least somewhat
18:44 outside of the chaos that the last administration sowed
18:47 and that some extreme House Republicans
18:50 are sowing as we speak.
18:52 We need what the military has to offer
18:55 by way of nonpartisan stability more than ever.
18:58 And I would say General Milley's been a class act
18:59 in how he's dealt with it.
19:01 - You've also run for president.
19:03 You've been a very public figure for several years now,
19:06 and you've been the subject of threats yourself.
19:09 Trump also mocked Nancy Pelosi's husband
19:12 being attacked at his home by a man with a hammer.
19:15 And I just wanted to ask you,
19:16 having experienced this before,
19:18 how concerned you are about that
19:20 and this kind of continued stoking of violence
19:23 and kind of echoing of it by the former president?
19:26 - One of the marks of whether a country
19:29 is a free and democratic and open society
19:32 is that there is no political violence.
19:36 And to have this level of,
19:38 whether it's joking about it, stoking it,
19:40 or actually perpetrating it,
19:42 which happened a few blocks from where we're sitting,
19:44 on January 6th, that is an extreme concern.
19:47 I think for anybody who cares about the trajectory
19:50 of the United States, not to mention anyone
19:53 who is personally impacted by that,
19:54 there is enough that public servants
19:57 and people who go to work in this administration
20:00 or in Congress have to worry about,
20:02 let alone their families.
20:03 Okay, it's one thing for people
20:05 who choose to go into public service,
20:06 although again, if you're going
20:08 into civilian public service,
20:09 the last thing you should have to worry about
20:10 is a threat to your safety.
20:12 But their family, their spouses, children,
20:16 surely one thing we should all be able to agree on
20:19 is that they are absolutely off limits
20:21 to these kinds of threats.
20:22 - We should be able to.
20:23 Secretary Pete Buttigieg, thank you so much
20:25 for joining me today and for all of your work
20:27 to make us be able to travel for holidays
20:29 and many other things. - We're on it.
20:30 - We're still waiting for President Biden to speak
20:32 and we'll bring that to you live as soon as he walks out.
20:35 Coming up next is Donald Trump's preparations
20:37 to travel to New York for the start of his civil fraud trial
20:39 to law to avoid the government shutdown late last night.
20:42 Let's listen in.
20:43 - Troops will continue to get paid
20:45 and their families will be cared for.
20:47 Tens of thousands, tens of thousands
20:50 of air traffic controllers
20:51 and transportation security officers
20:53 are going to stay in the job, get paid,
20:56 preventing unnecessary delays at airports all across America.
21:00 And millions of families will continue to have access
21:02 to critical food and nutrition assistance,
21:05 especially programs for women and infant children
21:08 and so many other programs.
21:10 And the vital work in science and health
21:12 from cancer research to food safety is going to continue,
21:15 as will long-term disaster recovery monies
21:19 for communities devastated by wildfires,
21:21 super storms, and droughts.
21:24 Social Security Administration will be fully funded,
21:28 which means it will be able to fully serve
21:30 the needs of the American people and the elderly.
21:34 But, folks, the truth is we shouldn't be here
21:36 in the first place.
21:37 We shouldn't have gotten here in the first place.
21:39 It's time to end governing by crisis
21:41 and keep your word when you give it in the Congress.
21:45 A few months ago, after a long negotiation
21:48 between myself and a Republican speaker
21:51 of the House of Representatives,
21:52 we came to agree on a budget agreement
21:55 precisely to avoid a manufactured crisis
21:58 that we just witnessed.
22:00 But the last few days and weeks,
22:02 extreme-magnet Republicans tried to walk away from that deal,
22:06 voting for deep, drastic spending cuts from 30 to 80 percent
22:11 that would have been devastating for millions of Americans.
22:14 They failed again.
22:16 They failed again, and we stopped them.
22:18 But I'm under no illusions that they'll be back again.
22:21 You know where I come from, when you make a deal
22:23 and you give your word, you keep it.
22:26 You give your word, you say, "I'm going to do what I said
22:27 I'm going to do," and you do it.
22:29 You keep it. You keep your word.
22:31 And I expect the Republican speaker
22:32 and Republicans in Congress to honor their word
22:35 and keep the deal they made months ago
22:37 when they tried to threaten us with almost
22:40 international bankruptcy by not paying our debts.
22:44 That includes comments made for fully-funded services
22:47 for our veterans and fully-funded needs
22:50 in defense of our nation.
22:52 You know, protect the trans- --
22:54 we have transformational investments
22:55 we're already making to deal with the climate crisis.
22:59 We are -- you know, protect Medicare's ability
23:01 and power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices.
23:03 We pay the highest prescription drug prices in the world.
23:06 We're finally making progress.
23:09 Although the Speaker and an overwhelming majority
23:11 of the Congress have steadfastly supported Ukraine
23:14 to defend itself against the aggression and brutality
23:17 of the Russians' attack on women and children,
23:19 in addition to the military in Ukraine,
23:23 there's no Ukraine funding this agreement.
23:25 Despite that, I did not believe we could let millions
23:29 of Americans go through the pain of a government shutdown.
23:32 But let's be clear.
23:34 I hope my friends on the other side
23:36 keep their word about support for Ukraine.
23:39 They said they're going to support Ukraine
23:41 in a separate vote.
23:43 We cannot, under any circumstance,
23:45 allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted.
23:48 I fully expect the Speaker to keep his commitment
23:50 to secure the passage and support needed to help Ukraine
23:54 as they defend themselves against aggression and brutality.
23:57 And, folks, you know, overwhelmingly --
24:00 there's an overwhelming number of Republicans and Democrats
24:03 in both the House and the Senate who support Ukraine.
24:06 Let's vote on it.
24:08 And I want to assure our American allies
24:10 and the American people and the people of Ukraine
24:12 that you can count on our support.
24:14 We will not walk away.
24:16 The vast majority of both parties --
24:18 I'll say it again, Democrats and Republicans,
24:20 Senate and House -- support helping Ukraine
24:23 and the brutal aggression
24:24 that is being thrust upon them by Russia.
24:27 Stop playing games.
24:29 Get this done.
24:32 This agreement today, while averting an immediate crisis,
24:36 ends in, I guess, it's 45 days now.
24:39 It's already moving down.
24:41 Just before Thanksgiving.
24:43 Quite frankly, I'm sick and tired.
24:46 I'm sick and tired of the brinksmanship.
24:49 And so are the American people.
24:51 I've been doing this, you all point out to me a lot,
24:53 a long time.
24:54 I've never quite seen a Republican Congress
24:58 or any Congress act like this.
25:00 This spring, mega-Republicans brought us to the brink,
25:03 threatening to fall on America's debt
25:05 for the first time in over 200 years.
25:09 And it would have caused a gigantic world crisis
25:12 in both at home and abroad.
25:15 But we reached an agreement.
25:16 We shook hands, said, "Here's the deal."
25:20 Well, now, this fall, the mega-extremists, once again,
25:23 have brought us to the brink,
25:24 this time to a government shutdown
25:27 and going back on the deal they made months ago,
25:29 not keeping their word.
25:32 Enough is enough is enough.
25:35 This is not that complicated.
25:37 The brinkmanship has to end,
25:40 and there shouldn't be another crisis.
25:43 There's no excuse for another crisis.
25:45 Consequently, I strongly urge my Republican friends
25:48 in Congress not to wait.
25:51 Don't waste time, as you did all summer.
25:54 Pass a year-long budget agreement.
25:55 Honor the deal we made a few months ago.
25:58 We have the strongest economy in the world today.
26:01 The strongest economy in the world today.
26:03 We have more to do.
26:05 But we are the indispensable nation in the world,
26:09 internationally and domestically,
26:11 in terms of our economy.
26:13 Let's act like it.
26:15 Let's act like it.
26:16 Stop the games.
26:18 Get to work.
26:20 Make sure the American people and our allies
26:22 and friends around the world know what we're doing.
26:26 Thank you.
26:27 -Mr. President, Speaker McCarthy's
26:28 speakership is now at risk.
26:30 Should Democrats vote to help him keep that job?
26:34 -I don't have a vote on that matter.
26:36 I'll leave that to the leadership
26:37 of the House and the Senate.
26:39 -Mr. President, what are your words to U.S.
26:41 allies, and in particular Zelensky,
26:43 on continued funding for Ukraine?
26:45 How can you reassure them?
26:46 -I can reassure them.
26:48 Look at me.
26:49 We're going to get it done.
26:51 I can't believe those who voted for supporting Ukraine,
26:56 overwhelming majority in the House and Senate,
26:58 Democrat and Republican,
26:59 will, for pure political reasons,
27:01 let more people die needlessly in Ukraine.
27:04 -And, Mr. President, a follow-up on Ukraine.
27:06 What is your sense of when the current U.S.
27:08 funding might run out, and how much urgency is there?
27:12 What's the timeline in the next couple weeks or months?
27:15 -We have time, not much time,
27:17 and there's this overwhelming sense of urgency.
27:20 -Last question. -Mr. President,
27:22 are you going to be able to trust Speaker McCarthy
27:25 when the next deal comes around?
27:29 -We just made one about Ukraine, so we'll find out.
27:34 -But are you worried that he is going to be forced
27:36 by fellow Republicans to back away
27:39 from any deal he comes with you?
27:41 -I hope this experience for the Speaker
27:52 has been one of a personal revelation.
27:56 I'm not being facetious.
27:59 I, um -- Anyway.
28:07 -Are you concerned about America's reputation
28:09 on the world stage, given the level of brinksmanship
28:12 we've seen this year?
28:15 -Based on the mega-Republican support, yes.
28:18 Based on what my administration's doing now.
28:21 Thank you.
28:23 -Thank you, Mr. President. -Thank you.
28:25 -We've been listening to President Biden
28:27 speaking from the White House after a shutdown
28:29 was avoided yesterday.
28:30 You heard him make the strong case there
28:32 for emergency funding for Ukraine,
28:34 repeatedly asked about that.
28:35 He called on Republicans to end governing by crisis,
28:38 said he was sick and tired of the brinksmanship.
28:40 We all are, I think.
28:42 I have Secretary Pete Buttigieg agreed to stay with me
28:45 while we watch that, and he's joining me again now.
28:46 So, we heard some of those shadows
28:49 of what he said in his remarks there last night
28:52 in the statement.
28:54 You've worked with Congress.
28:55 You've worked with a range of members.
28:57 Do you think it's possible to end
28:59 this era of governing by crisis?
29:01 -I think it is. I think it has to be.
29:03 And one thing that I'm really struck by
29:05 in the President's remarks is how many times
29:07 he went back to the idea, "When you make a deal,
29:09 you stick with the deal."
29:11 And, you know, I've noticed many times serving under him.
29:14 I'm sure you had the same experience
29:16 in the administration.
29:18 He believes deeply in keeping your word,
29:21 in fidelity to your word.
29:23 And that's not just some quaint principle.
29:26 That is actually a governing strategy
29:28 that he has used to build the credibility
29:31 that got some of the biggest achievements
29:32 of this administration done,
29:34 whether it was the bipartisan infrastructure law,
29:36 passed when people didn't think you could do anything
29:38 bipartisan in this town,
29:39 or the CHIPS Act that also was done on a bipartisan basis.
29:43 So, one thing that I'm really struck by
29:45 is this idea of really calling the Speaker
29:48 and calling House Republicans more generally
29:51 to their duty and their responsibility to do this
29:54 while having, at the same time, no illusions
29:56 about the dynamics that are going on.
29:58 The other thing that I think is really striking there
30:00 and that I'm glad he pointed out
30:02 is it's not just about the shutdown
30:04 and the need that we can't lurch from threat to threat,
30:06 from shutdown to shutdown,
30:08 but what they were trying to threaten the shutdown
30:11 in order to get these cuts, these 30% or more cuts.
30:14 You know, we've been running the numbers
30:15 on what that would have meant for transportation.
30:17 If we won a year with those kinds of cuts,
30:19 we would have to close air traffic control towers
30:22 across the country.
30:23 Cargo and passenger flights would be impacted.
30:26 Just to take one example, I'll give you another example.
30:28 Railroad inspections would be cut back dramatically.
30:31 Some of the very same people who were quick
30:33 to try to score partisan points off of situations
30:36 like what happened in East Palestine, Ohio,
30:38 were effectively demanding.