Congressional Democrats held a press briefing on Wednesday to discuss President Trump's first 100 days.
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00:00Thank you for coming, everybody.
01:07Is everyone here?
01:17Okay, I want to welcome my Senate colleagues and my House colleagues here today to talk
01:27about Trump's first 100 days.
01:30Donald Trump's first 100 days can be defined by one big F word.
01:39Failure.
01:44Failure on the economy.
01:47Failure on lowering costs.
01:51Failure on tariffs.
01:54Failure on foreign policy.
01:57Failure on preserving democracy.
02:00Failure on helping middle class families.
02:04Today's new economic news showed that Donald Trump is running the American economy the way
02:13he ran his family business into the ground.
02:18Into the ground.
02:21On tariffs.
02:22What a failure.
02:23It's a policy that's in total chaos.
02:26One day says one thing.
02:27One day says another thing.
02:29Maybe this country has tariffs.
02:31Maybe this country won't.
02:33Even his policy advisors are at a loss to explain what he's doing.
02:37And as a result, instead of all of us in the world going after China, China has allies all over the world going after us.
02:50Tariffs.
02:51A failure.
02:52On costs.
02:54Donald Trump said on day one he lowered costs of American families.
02:58They are up and up and up.
03:00And the tariffs are making it worse.
03:03Costs will go up for about $4,000 for the average American family.
03:10People of IRAs have lost close to $100,000.
03:15Small businesses, medium-sized businesses, large businesses are frozen because they don't know what Trump's going to do.
03:23And that constrains supplies and raises costs.
03:28Failure on foreign policy.
03:31Instead of standing up to bullies, Trump is succumbing to bullies.
03:37He's being bullied by the dictators of the world.
03:41And again, he's broken our alliances in Europe.
03:45And so all the world now looks askance at America.
03:48Failure.
03:49On Doge.
03:50On Doge.
03:51Doge was supposed to bring efficiency.
03:53What instead is it doing?
03:55Cutting Social Security.
03:56Cutting medical research.
03:58Cutting costs.
03:59Failure on helping American families.
04:03Raising.
04:06Cutting taxes on the rich.
04:09And paying for it by slashing Medicaid.
04:12Strangling Social Security.
04:15Hurting our veterans.
04:18Total failure on helping American families.
04:23And who is complicit in all of this?
04:26Who?
04:27The Republicans in the House and Senate are co-conspirators.
04:32They are complicit.
04:33They are aiding and abetting all of Donald Trump's failures.
04:42They're not standing up to him once.
04:44They're involved and they will shoulder the blame.
04:47Finally, on democracy.
04:52Donald Trump is trying to ruin our democracy.
04:56He has changed the Justice Department into an attack dog for his political enemies.
05:01The hallowed, fair Justice Department.
05:03He's washing it away.
05:06He is a would-be dictator.
05:11He wants to be a king.
05:13And again, our Republican colleagues in the House and Senate are complicit.
05:21So, Donald Trump's first hundred days are an abject failure.
05:30And we Democrats, here and around the country, will fight him at every turn.
05:39The great Hakeem Jeffries.
05:43Thank you so much.
05:44An honor and a privilege to stand here with you, Leader Schumer.
05:47Thank you for your leadership.
05:49And an honor and a privilege to stand here with House Democrats and Senate Democrats,
05:54shoulder to shoulder, in defense of the American people.
05:59Donald Trump's first 100 days in office have been a disaster.
06:04Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans are crashing the economy in real time.
06:11Raising costs on hard-working American taxpayers and driving us toward a painful recession.
06:22This is not Joe Biden's economy, Donald.
06:27It is your economy.
06:30It is the Trump economy.
06:32It is a failed economy.
06:34And the American people know it.
06:37Council Democrats and Senate Democrats standing shoulder to shoulder are committed to building an economy that actually is affordable and makes life better for everyday Americans.
06:54We want to build an economy that lowers housing costs, lowers childcare costs, lowers healthcare costs, lowers grocery costs, and lowers utility costs.
07:07We recognize that far too many people in this country are struggling to live paycheck to paycheck.
07:16That should not be the case in the wealthiest country in the history of the world.
07:21It's time to build an affordable economy.
07:24And it's time to build it now.
07:30Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans have failed in this task.
07:34And they're not equipped to do it.
07:36Because they're focused on enacting massive tax cuts for their billionaire donors like Elon Musk.
07:44And they want everyday Americans to pay for it.
07:49We are going to continue to stand up to protect Social Security and Medicare.
07:55These aren't entitlement programs.
07:58They are earned benefits.
08:00The American people have paid into those benefits.
08:03Work hard for those benefits.
08:06Earn those benefits.
08:07They are earned benefits.
08:09And let me be clear with our Republican colleagues and Donald Trump.
08:12Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme.
08:15Project 2025 is a Ponzi scheme.
08:24We are going to stand up in defense of the healthcare of the American people.
08:29It is outrageous that Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans are trying to enact the largest cut to Medicaid in American history.
08:41They will hurt families, hurt children, hurt seniors, hurt women, hurt veterans, and hurt disabled Americans.
08:49Hospitals will close.
08:51Nursing homes will shut down.
08:54And people will die.
08:57This budget that Republicans are trying to jam down the throat to the American people at the direction of Donald Trump is unconscionable, unacceptable, and un-American.
09:09And Senate Democrats and House Democrats are going to do everything possible to stop this reckless budget in its tracks and bury it in the ground never to rise again.
09:21Lastly, we have a message for our Republican colleagues.
09:34The House and the Senate are separate and co-equal branches of government.
09:40We don't work for Donald Trump.
09:43We don't work for Elon Musk.
09:45We don't work for far-right extremists.
09:47We work for the American people.
09:50And it's time for you to start acting like it or step out of the way so we can build the type of America that allows every single person in this great country to thrive.
10:05It's now my great honor to yield to the great Reverend Dr. Senator Raphael Warnock from the great state of Georgia.
10:14It didn't take us long to see what this Trump administration is all about.
10:28This is the worst first 100 days that this country has seen in a very, very long time.
10:37We are witnessing an all-out assault on our Constitution, an all-out assault on our norms and our values, an assault on the pocketbooks of ordinary people.
10:53But in a real sense of assault on the spirit of the American people, they are trying to convince us that our neighbors are our enemies.
11:10We should know better than that by now, and we do.
11:15We went through a deadly pandemic in which if my neighbor was sick while she was sick, I was potentially imperiled because it was an airborne disease.
11:26That didn't make my neighbor my enemy.
11:29That means I have an invested interest in my neighbor's healthcare, in my neighbor's ability to be covered.
11:36And so while there are politicians who want us to be worried of our neighbors, we ought to be worried of politicians who want us to be afraid of each other.
11:44That's right.
11:45That's right.
11:46That's right.
11:47They're trampling due process, striking fear in communities all across our country.
11:52They're firing the federal workers who serve our veterans.
11:58Many of them are veterans themselves.
12:00They have had the honor necessary to fight for us.
12:07And then they come back and they've got to fight with us to get ordinary respect for the work that they've already done and the work that they're trying to do.
12:14They're trying to shut down social security offices in Georgia and all across the country, drinking water safety offices.
12:25And why are they doing all of this?
12:26They're doing all of this in order to pay for a tax cut for billionaires, all the while adding billions of dollars, trillions of dollars over time to our national debt.
12:44But here's the thing that they're really trying to do.
12:48They are trying to weaponize despair.
12:53They're trying to so beat us down that we will be too so weary to fight.
12:59And it's our job to prove them wrong.
13:01This country does not belong to the people in power.
13:04The power is in the people.
13:06So I want the American people to be clear that we are fighting.
13:14In many ways, you will see our fight.
13:17Sometimes you will not see what the fights that we're engaged in, but know that we're fighting for ordinary people.
13:23Because we believe that if you center the people rather than the politics, you have a chance at getting the public policy right.
13:31That's right.
13:32And so we invite our Republican colleagues to join us.
13:39The doors of the church are open.
13:42The time is always right to do what's right.
13:45It's never too late to be on the right side of history.
13:48And so we want you to rise up to this moral moment and to recognize that we will not give in to wannabe autocrats who want to convince us that they have already won.
14:01If they can convince you that they've already won, then you won't fight.
14:05You won't raise your voice.
14:08The great Andy Young, who's now in his 90s and is a great source of wisdom for me, tells the story of how after they had passed the civil rights bill and the law, Dr. King and his team went to visit with President Lyndon Baines Johnson.
14:28Dr. King said to President Johnson, I need a voting rights law.
14:33My people are being disenfranchised and we've got to pass the voting rights law.
14:38And the president said, Martin, I agree with you.
14:41But the sad political reality is I don't have the power to do that right now.
14:46I just passed the civil rights law.
14:49I've used all of my political capital to muster that through the Congress.
14:53There's no way I can get a voting rights law passed.
14:55I don't have the power to do that.
15:00And they left the meeting and the team was feeling all dejected.
15:03And somebody said to Dr. King, what are we going to do now?
15:06He said, well, the president says he doesn't have any power.
15:10I guess we're going to have to go and get the president some power.
15:14And so I've been thinking about that story a lot lately because everywhere I go and I know my colleagues have the same experience.
15:22People are asking us, what are we going to do?
15:25Will you fight for us?
15:26And the answer is yes, we are fighting for you.
15:28But Selma was about creating the context for the change that you want to see in the world.
15:33And so know that as we fight on the inside, we need you to fight on the outside.
15:39And we will prove once again that this is the United States of America.
15:44And at the end of the day, it's the people who have the last word.
15:47Love has the last word.
15:49Justice has the last word.
15:51Righteousness has the last word.
15:53We will continue to fight.
15:54Amen.
15:55Thank you so much.
16:03What an honor and privilege to be here with Leader Jeffries, Leader Schumer.
16:08Thank you for bringing us together and with my incredible Democratic colleagues in the House and the Senate.
16:16Fighters, each one of them.
16:18A hundred days ago, Donald Trump came to this Capitol.
16:22He swore an oath, spoke to the American people and promised to bring down prices.
16:29And then he started a trade war with our allies and prices went up.
16:34He said we'd be a rich nation again.
16:38Then he collapsed the market and trillions of dollars in savings have been lost.
16:44He promised a glorious destiny for Americans.
16:48Then he executed an agenda of, by, and for the billionaire class.
16:56And now supermarkets are warning they may not be able to stock their shelves.
17:01Republican politicians promised the American people they would have more.
17:06More money in your pocket.
17:08More opportunity for your family.
17:11More confidence in your future.
17:13But all we have seen is them take.
17:17Take away health care.
17:19Take away social security.
17:21Take away veterans benefits.
17:23Take food away from children and seniors.
17:27That's not what anyone voted for.
17:31We look at the polls, but also go out and ask people for yourself.
17:37You'll hear the same thing that we're hearing.
17:40Ask my constituent whose husband is in final stages of dementia.
17:45Whose financial survival depends on Medicaid.
17:49Ask the mom in my district whose son was born with spinal muscular atrophy.
17:54A proud college graduate who relies on Medicaid not just to stay alive but to live a full life.
18:02Ask the veterans that I've met in town halls and round tables and in Dunkin Donuts across my district.
18:10They can't get an appointment at the VA right now and they are scared and think we have forgotten them.
18:18Ask the seniors who cannot get someone to pick up the phone at social security.
18:23In red, blue and purple districts Americans are saying this is not about politics.
18:30This is not about an ideology.
18:32This is about the fact that politicians are supposed to work for the American people.
18:38Not the other way around.
18:40And we see the Republicans in Congress choosing their careers, their political survival over that of their constituents.
18:54Listening to Donald Trump and Elon Musk and their donors instead of their own voters.
19:00Their voters are speaking clearly.
19:03They oppose tax cuts for the rich.
19:06They oppose cuts to social security.
19:08They oppose cuts to veterans benefits.
19:11They want the representatives they elected to lower their cost of living.
19:16To make sure they can afford groceries, go to the doctor and stay in their homes.
19:22Whether or not Republicans are listening to their voters, Democrats are.
19:28We see them.
19:29And we see a system that punishes those who work the hardest to benefit those who have the most.
19:38And we're here to offer a different path.
19:41We're here to fight for the America that Americans want.
19:46With more opportunity, more wealth, and more power for working families.
19:53That is the fight that we're in.
19:56That is our commitment to Americans.
19:59And I am so proud to be here today and yield to my good friend, the Senator from Delaware, Senator Lisa Lund Rochester.
20:13Thank you, Jollies.
20:15Leader Schumer, Leader Jeffries, thank you for gathering us all here today on this beautiful, beautiful afternoon.
20:30As a former member of the House of Representatives and as a new member of the United States Senate,
20:41I have to say to everybody, I don't know about you, but when I look back and see this crowd,
20:46this is a beautiful sight to behold.
20:49Democrats coming together across the Capitol.
20:53So I start off by saying it's good to see you.
20:57It's good to be with you.
20:59It's good to be in the fight together.
21:01All of us represent millions of Americans across this country.
21:05From every single corner of this country.
21:08We have constituents who may have different voices, may look different, may have different beliefs,
21:15and face different challenges every day.
21:18But there are two things that we are united on.
21:21One is that we love this country.
21:24Get that straight.
21:26We love this country.
21:29And for so many of our constituents, and for us, we feel a sense of urgency in this moment.
21:38100 days.
21:42Some of you may recall, if you know me, that in 2016 I was elected, having never run for anything in my life.
21:50And I came to the House of Representatives in the minority.
21:55Right, Speaker Pelosi?
21:56I was in the minority.
21:58I was, I came with Donald Trump.
22:03And so for me, this is not new.
22:05We made sure that we, every attempt to repeal, replace, tear up the Affordable Care Act, we did not let that happen because the people did not let that happen.
22:17Right.
22:18And today, I am here as a United States Senator, in the minority, temporarily.
22:24I'm going to say that again, temporarily.
22:27Temporarily.
22:28Temporarily.
22:29And also with Donald Trump.
22:32And I have a message to my Republican colleagues.
22:37When I first came in, the word was unprecedented.
22:42But now the words are uncertain, chaotic, confused, and corrupt.
22:48Those are the words.
22:50And so to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, I say on this 101st day, there is an adage.
23:00The truth shall set you free.
23:03That's right.
23:04The truth shall set you free.
23:06A hundred days into this presidency, we've gone from three years of solid growth in our economy to the steepest decline that we've seen since the pandemic.
23:17That's the truth.
23:19Groceries are up.
23:20Retirement savings are down.
23:21That's the truth.
23:22Outbreaks of measles and the avian flu.
23:25That's the truth.
23:27It costs more to build, buy, or to rent a home.
23:32It's the truth.
23:34American citizens, including two-year-olds and kids with cancer, are being deported without due process.
23:41That's the truth.
23:44There are wars around the world.
23:46There's chaos at the Pentagon, and our allies are losing trust in us.
23:50Anybody remember Signal Gate 1 and the sequel Signal Gate 2?
23:54And don't forget the Department of Inefficiency, breaking our government while they're stealing your data.
24:03It's been a long 100 days, but make no mistake.
24:07Democrats are going to continue to fight, and each of us must do our part in this moment.
24:14We will sit in, right, Corey?
24:17Yes.
24:18To protect Medicaid and the millions of Americans who rely on it.
24:21We will stand up for justice and the rule of law and due process.
24:26We will march for our rights.
24:29And across the capital and across the country, we will lock arms against hate, corruption, and darkness.
24:37We do this because this is our country.
24:41We do this because this is our democracy.
24:46And we do this because we recognize that we are all in this together.
24:52We are all in this together.
24:54And so I close with the song, but I'm not singing.
24:59I close with the song that I think represents what you see behind you.
25:06The song that is sung and danced to at every black family reunion.
25:11We are family.
25:13And we've got your back, American families.
25:16And it is my honor to now introduce the minority whip from the United States House of Representatives,
25:26Pete Aguilar, my friend.
25:28Thank you so much, Senator.
25:30Leader Schumer, Leader Jeffries, Speaker Emerita Pelosi, and colleagues.
25:35For 100 days, Republicans have shown us who they are fighting for and what they care about.
25:42It's not the working families who asked for a little bit of help, a little bit of breathing room.
25:48It's not our veterans, our farmers, our teachers, or our seniors.
25:53The only thing Republicans can rally around, the only thing that brings them together,
26:00is massive tax cuts for their billionaire friends.
26:04They're trying to pass a budget to cut Medicaid, to cut health care,
26:09to make health care more unaffordable and less accessible.
26:15They're dismantling the Social Security Administration
26:18and putting the earned benefits that seniors rely on in jeopardy.
26:23And Trump's reckless tariffs are driving our country towards a recession,
26:28which will put hardworking Americans out of work through no fault of their own.
26:34In just 100 days, Donald Trump and the Republican majority have broken their promise to lower costs,
26:41and instead chosen to crash the economy.
26:44Their budget bill will only make things worse.
26:47Democrats are going to keep the focus on the American people.
26:51And the American people are asking for a little bit of breathing room so they can get by.
26:57They want to spend a little less of their hard-earned paychecks at the grocery store, at their daycare, or toward rent.
27:05We're going to focus on making life more affordable, making life easier for everyday Americans in these next 100 days,
27:14and in every turn until we flip the House, and we flip the Senate,
27:20and we put a check on the Trump Administration's reckless economic policies.
27:26Thank you for coming, everybody.