Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) delivers a response to President Trump's address to a Joint Session of Congress.
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NewsTranscript
00:00We are living in a pivotal moment in our country's history, facing unprecedented challenges.
00:09How we respond to this moment will impact not only our lives, but the lives of our kids
00:15and grandchildren, and in terms of climate change, the very health and well-being of
00:21the planet.
00:23As you heard tonight, President Trump has been very effective in creating what I would
00:29call a parallel universe for his supporters, a set of ideas that either have no basis in
00:38reality or, in the great scheme of things, are nowhere near the most important concerns
00:48of the American people.
00:50And one way that he does that is through the concept of the big lie, and boy, did we hear
00:57that tonight.
00:59You say something that is grossly false, say it over and over again, and have right-wing
01:07social media blast it out endless times until people actually believe it.
01:15And then, rather than address the real issues facing the American people, the struggles
01:22that the American people are facing, we find ourselves wasting endless amounts of time
01:30discussing Trump's absurdities.
01:33Let me just give you a very few examples.
01:38Trump claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from him and that he won by a landslide.
01:45Remember that?
01:46A lie.
01:47Trump claimed that the January 6th insurrection was a day of love.
01:52A lie.
01:54Trump has claimed that millions of undocumented people voted and do vote in American elections.
02:01A lie.
02:03Trump has claimed that climate change is a hoax originating in China.
02:07A lie.
02:09Trump has claimed that Ukraine started the horrific war with Russia.
02:14A lie.
02:15And tonight, just tonight, Trump claimed that millions of dead people between the ages of
02:21100 and 360, I guess, were collecting Social Security checks.
02:27And that is an outrageous lie intended to lay the groundwork for cuts to Social Security
02:34and dismantling the most successful and popular government program in history.
02:40So let's be clear about that.
02:42Well over 99% of Social Security checks are going out to people who earned those checks.
02:5070 million Americans.
02:53Nobody, nobody who is 150 years old or 200 years old or 300 years old is receiving Social
03:03Security checks.
03:05And on and on the lies go.
03:09Now the purpose of all of this lying is not just to push his hateful right-wing ideology.
03:17It is not just to try to divide us up.
03:20It is more than that.
03:22It is a masterful effort, and you saw that tonight, to deflect attention away from the
03:30three most important issues facing the people of our country.
03:36Issues that Trump and his billionaire friends do not want to address because it is not in
03:43their financial interests to do so.
03:49Trump gave his State of the Union speech tonight.
03:53But if you listen closely, that speech had very little to say about the State of the
04:00Union, about what is really going on in our country, especially for working families.
04:10Trump spoke for over 90 minutes, although I must confess it seemed a lot longer than
04:14that, and he almost completely ignored the issues that are keeping working people up
04:22at night as they worry about how their families are going to survive in these very tough times.
04:30And I will tell you exactly why Trump had very little to say about the real crises facing
04:37the working class of this country.
04:41Think back six weeks ago, when Trump was inaugurated for his second term as president, just six
04:47weeks ago.
04:49Standing right behind him were the three wealthiest men in this country, Mr. Musk, Mr. Bezos, and
04:57Mr. Zuckerberg.
04:59And standing behind them were 13 other billionaires who Trump had nominated to head major government
05:07agencies.
05:09Many of these same billionaires, including Musk, were in the Capitol tonight listening
05:16to that speech.
05:18In other words, it is there for all to see.
05:24The Trump administration is not hiding it.
05:28The Trump administration is a government of the billionaire class, by the billionaire
05:34class, and for the billionaire class.
05:39Notwithstanding some of their rhetoric, this is a government that could care less about
05:46ordinary Americans and the working families of our country.
05:51My friends, we are no longer moving toward oligarchy.
05:58We are living in an oligarchic society.
06:03Now let's take a moment and try to escape from Trump's parallel universe, the universe
06:10that you heard tonight, and let's do something really, really radical.
06:16Let's actually take a hard look at the problems that Americans are facing.
06:23Today, 60% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
06:28Unlike Trump, I grew up in a family that lived paycheck to paycheck, and I know something
06:33about that reality.
06:36It means that every day, every day, millions of Americans worry about how they're going
06:41to pay their rent, pay for childcare, pay for a doctor's visit when they get sick.
06:47They worry about what happens when their car breaks down, and they can't afford the thousand
06:51bucks it costs to get it fixed, and what happens when they can't get to work because they don't
06:56have a car.
06:58They worry about how they can afford to buy healthy food for their kids when the price
07:03of food is off the charts.
07:06Funny, I heard Trump speaking for 90 minutes tonight, I didn't hear one word from him about
07:13the economic reality facing 60% of our people or the enormous stress that they are living
07:21under.
07:2290-minute speech, not one word about the economic reality facing American workers, but that's
07:28not all.
07:29Today, in America, everyone knows that our healthcare system is broken.
07:36It is dysfunctional, and it is outrageously expensive.
07:40We remain the only wealthy nation on Earth not to guarantee healthcare for all.
07:47Mr. President, you really want to make America great again?
07:52Then make sure that every American, regardless of income, can go to a doctor or a hospital
07:58and not worry about how they're going to pay the bills.
08:03President Trump, healthcare is a human right.
08:07I didn't hear one word from you, not one word, over 90-minute speech, not one word from you
08:14about the healthcare crisis that is impacting many, many millions of our people.
08:20Nor did I hear you say why we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription
08:27drugs, sometimes 10 times more than the people in other countries, and why one out of four
08:32Americans are unable to afford the prescriptions their doctors prescribe.
08:38Not one word about the outrageously high cost of prescription drugs.
08:43Mr. President, we have nearly 800,000 Americans who are homeless.
08:50Over 20 million of our people spend more than half of their limited income on housing.
08:55We have a major housing crisis in America.
08:59Everyone knows it, apparently, except you, because in your speech tonight, I didn't hear
09:04you mention the housing crisis.
09:09Today in America, we have more income and wealth inequality than we've ever had.
09:13Three richest people in America, the folks Trump invited to stand behind him at his inauguration,
09:20now own more wealth than the bottom half of our society, 170 million Americans.
09:27Did anyone out there hear one word from the President of the United States on that enormously
09:34important issue, which gets to the very fabric of our society?
09:39So few owning so much, while so many people suffer.
09:43And here's something else the President forgot to discuss.
09:48Not only is our life expectancy four years lower than other wealthy countries, the bottom
09:5550% in this country, the working class of America, on average, live seven years shorter
10:03lives than the top 1%.
10:06Got that?
10:07In other words, being poor or working class in this country today is a death sentence.
10:14Did you hear any discussion tonight as to why so many of our people are living shorter
10:21lives than they should?
10:24During his speech tonight, Trump did not have one word to say about how we are going to
10:31address the planetary crisis of climate change.
10:36The last 10 years, as most Americans know, have been the warmest ever recorded.
10:41And extreme weather disturbances and natural disasters have been taking place all over
10:47the world, from California to India, across Europe to North Carolina.
10:52And yet, not surprisingly, Trump had nothing to say about climate change except, I guess,
11:00drill, baby, drill.
11:02Well, that's going to help a whole lot.
11:05And let's be clear.
11:07Not only did Trump fail to talk about some of the most important issues facing the working
11:12class of America, but the solutions, in quote, he proposed would only make a bad situation
11:22even worse.
11:23Yep, I did hear Trump talk tonight about some tax breaks for working families in terms of
11:30not taxing tips, not taxing Social Security, and not taxing overtime.
11:36Fine.
11:37But that is Trump change compared to the benefits he's going to give to the 1%.
11:44And it doesn't tell the whole story about his tax policies.
11:49According to a recent study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, if all of
11:54Trump's so-called America First policies are enacted, including his tariffs, which
12:00he spoke a lot about tonight, the bottom 95% of Americans will see their taxes go up, while
12:09the richest 5% in our country will see their taxes go down, way down.
12:18Tonight, in so many words, Trump urged Congress to pass his big, beautiful budget.
12:24Do you know what's really in it?
12:28This budget would cut Medicaid by $880 billion.
12:32Oh, I guess Trump forgot to talk about that.
12:36$880 billion cut in Medicaid.
12:40According to one estimate, it means that up to 36 million Americans, including millions
12:45of children, would be thrown off the health insurance they have.
12:49Hey, a 90-minute speech tonight, not one word about throwing millions of kids off of the
12:55health insurance they have.
12:57When you cut Medicaid drastically, it means that nursing homes that receive two-thirds
13:01of their funding from Medicaid will either have to shut down, lay off workers, or significantly
13:07scale back the services they provide seniors.
13:10Gee, I didn't hear that from Trump tonight, either.
13:13It would be a devastating blow, these cuts to Medicaid, for the 32 million Americans
13:19who get their health care at community health centers.
13:23And it's not just Medicaid that Trump's budget would cut.
13:28It would also cut nutrition assistance by at least $230 billion.
13:33Now, I want you to think about that for a moment.
13:36And can you imagine?
13:38The billionaire class, people who can support their families, some of these guys have tens
13:43of billions of dollars, support their families for the next 10 generations, 50 generations.
13:50People who live in incredible opulence, people who own their own jet planes, they own their
13:55own private islands, they own their own spaceships, trying to get tax breaks by taking food out
14:03of the mouths of low-income kids.
14:06That truly is disgusting.
14:10What we are seeing is the Robert Hood principle in reverse, taking from the poor and giving
14:18to the rich and the very, very rich.
14:22And here is something else Trump has been doing.
14:26For the past several weeks, he and his good friend Elon Musk, who is up there in the audience
14:31tonight, have been throwing hundreds of thousands of federal employees off their jobs.
14:39Now, I know some of you are saying, well, that's too bad, but that's the federal government.
14:45Not me.
14:46It's not me.
14:47It's just those guys who work for the federal government.
14:48But I want you to think about this.
14:50Think about it for a moment.
14:52If Musk and his friends can arbitrarily throw federal workers out on the street today, what
15:00do you think that Musk and his fellow billionaires will be doing tomorrow when artificial intelligence
15:08and robotics explode in this country?
15:11Do you think they'll give a damn about you and your families?
15:16No.
15:17They will treat you exactly the way they're treating federal employees today.
15:21You will be out on the street as well.
15:25But it's not only absurd domestic policies that we've got to fight.
15:30For the first time in our 250-year history, we have a president who is turning his back
15:36on democracy and allying us with authoritarianism.
15:41No, we must not abandon the people of Ukraine who were invaded by the Russian dictator Vladimir
15:48Putin.
15:49We must always stand for democracy, not dictatorship.
15:54Let me be very clear.
15:57Regardless of where Trump is taking this country, here's what I think and what I believe the
16:04American people want us to do.
16:08They want us to end a corrupt campaign finance system.
16:11Well, gee, golly gee, I didn't hear Mr. Trump talk about that tonight.
16:15A corrupt campaign finance system which allows a handful of billionaires to buy elections.
16:24It is beyond crazy that someone like Elon Musk can contribute over $270 million to help
16:32get Trump elected and then he gets to run the government.
16:38It is absurd that any member of Congress who stands up to Netanyahu's brutal war in Gaza
16:45can expect to be opposed by millions of dollars in campaign contributions coming from AIPAC.
16:53The American people want us to end this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision and
17:00move to the public funding of elections.
17:04Democracy is supposed to be about one person, one vote, not billionaires buying the political
17:10candidates of their choice.
17:13And further, no, we should not be giving tax breaks to billionaires.
17:18That's not what we should be doing.
17:19We must demand that the wealthiest people in this country start paying their fair share
17:24of taxes.
17:26We must raise the federal minimum wage of seven and a quarter an hour to a living wage
17:32of at least $17 an hour.
17:34We must make it easier for workers to join trade unions, grow the union movement and
17:40prevent corporations from violating labor laws with impunity by passing the PRO Act,
17:46legislation that I will be introducing tomorrow.
17:50No, we are not going to cut Social Security.
17:55Quite the contrary.
17:57We must expand Social Security benefits and extend insolvency for the next 75 years by
18:05scrapping the cap that allows a billionaire to pay the same amount into Social Security
18:11as a truck driver.
18:12Too many, too many of our seniors are hurting today for us to be talking about cutting Social
18:18Security.
18:19Over 20% of seniors in this country live on $15,000 a year or less.
18:26Further, instead of making massive cuts to Medicaid, we must join every other major country
18:33in guaranteeing health care to all of our people through a Medicare for All single payer
18:40program.
18:41We must also take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry, get them to charge us what they
18:46charge other countries, reducing prescription drug prices by 50%.
18:52And at a time of a terrible housing crisis in Vermont and in every area of our country,
18:59we must build at least 4 million units of low-income and affordable housing, stop corporate
19:06landlords from jacking up rent prices and establish a cap on rent.
19:13In a competitive global economy, we need the best educated workforce in the world.
19:19All of our young people must have the ability to get a higher education by making public
19:25colleges, trade schools and universities tuition-free and canceling student debt.
19:32Yes, we can create millions of good-paying jobs by combating climate change and moving
19:40our energy system away from fossil fuels and into sustainable energy.
19:46You know, I heard a lot of talk about freedom tonight from Mr. Trump.
19:51Well, in a free society, we must absolutely guarantee that it is the women of America
19:59who control their own bodies, not the local, state or federal governments.
20:06Now I know, because I've heard from many of you, that there are a lot of people out
20:11there who are feeling angry and frustrated at what's going on here in Washington, D.C.
20:20And some of you may feel a bit hopeless.
20:24So let me say this.
20:26At this particular moment in history, despair is not an option.
20:34Moving up is not acceptable.
20:38And none of us have the privilege of hiding under the covers.
20:43The stakes are just too high.
20:47Let us never forget, real change only occurs when ordinary people stand up by the millions
20:59against oppression and injustice and fight back.
21:05That is the history of the founding of our nation, when brave men and women took on the
21:12mighty, invincible British Empire.
21:17It is the history of the abolitionist movement, the history of the labor movement, the history
21:24of the civil rights movement, the women's movement, the environmental movement and the
21:29gay rights movement.
21:31Yes, I know, the oligarchs are enormously powerful.
21:38I deal with them every day.
21:40I know that.
21:41Yes, they have endless amounts of money.
21:45Yes, they control our economy and they own much of the media.
21:52They have enormous influence over our political system.
21:59But from the bottom of my heart, I am convinced that they can be beaten.
22:08If we stand together and not let them divide us up by the color of our skin or where we
22:16were born or our religion or the language we speak or our sexual orientation, if we
22:23bring our people together around an agenda that works for the many and not just the few,
22:32there is nothing in the world that can stop us.
22:37We can win.
22:40We will win.
22:42Let us go forward together.
22:45Thank you all very much.