Democrats and Republicans Hold News Conferences

... has a bill so partisan that it even splits their own caucus. This proposal isn't even serious. It's dangerous. It would endanger troop readiness, risk troop pay, hinder our efforts to out-compete the Chinese government. Even the head of the Joint Chiefs sent a letter. You can't run a military and just put everything on pause for six months when you have to sign contracts, build weapons systems, et cetera, that take so much effort. It's not serious for Republicans to say they want to pass the CR that fails properly to fund E-Verify, H-2B visas, border security. These guys talk about border security, but they don't fund it. (00:40) The House Republican proposal disbands a critical law enforcement effort to stop drug smuggling, cartels, and money laundering. It's not serious when Republicans say they want to pass the CR that forgets vital health programs that rely on federal funding. The CR has no plans to address the looming cliff for health programs. People with diabetes would struggle to get what they need. Community health centers would be endangered and closing because they don't have funding. And if all that wasn't enough, the Republicans have no plan for extending Farm Bill funding. We're going to oppose to 'dairy cliff' in December. A dairy cliff could cause such loss to our farmers. Farmers in New York told me if the dairy cliff occurs, they'd go out of business and it's estimated it could as much as double the price of milk, talking about inflation and costs. So this bill is not a serious bill. (01:39) There is some terrible consequences for proceeding with Speaker Johnson's reckless six-month proposal, which is why the White House already issued a veto threat. So it's going nowhere. The answer is simple. The house should stop wasting time on a partisan CR that's going nowhere and work in a bipartisan way to get this done. We're ready to sit down with them and discuss a bipartisan bill, but Speaker Johnson has not reached out to speak to Leader McEnton, Leader Jeffries, Leader Schumer, myself, or the White House. You can't just let Chip Roy sit down in the hard right, write a bill, and think it's going to pass and not even think it's going to get Republican... And realize it's even going to get any Republican opposition. Because right now the only thing bipartisan about this proposal is a disdain around it from people in both parties. (02:32) Now it's time for Republicans to work with us in a bipartisan package with input from both sides that avoids harmful cuts, free of poison pills. We've done it before. We can do it again. I'm ready when they are. Senator Murray.

Well, thank you. There is an awful lot happening in the world to let house Republicans leave our government on autopilot for six months. There are real consequences to a reckless six-month CR, new programs that will not get started, finished programs that will not wind down, opportunities missed. Agencies like Social Security Administration will be spread thinner and thinner despite doing important work for the American people. Work like keeping our skies and our food supply safe, work to stop deadly illegal drugs, prepare for extreme weather events, or respond to public health threats, even work to counter aggression from our adversaries. Why would house Republicans keep our military from moving forward? When it comes to keeping our military strong and ready and properly funded, we cannot afford to be our own worst enemy. And if House Republicans kick the can down the road for an entire six months, that's not just a de facto cut across the entire government. (03:53) It means we'll be staring down even more damaging sequester cuts on the near horizon. Some MAGA Republicans actively want damaging cuts. Some want a disastrous shutdown. They want more chaos for Trump. So they've been demanding exactly the kind of partisan CR that Speaker Johnson is putting forward, one that they know will not pass. We should not allow our government to teeter on the verge of a MAGA Republican shutdown because Donald Trump wants to pick another fight. How many times have we had to learn that lesson? How many more times will we have to go through a Trump-driven chaos cycle before Republicans just let us move forward? Everyone knows, including the SAFE Act on the House Republican CR is a partisan scare tactic and a poison pill. (04:46) If House Republicans want to show how serious they are about avoiding a damaging shutdown, avoiding a spending freeze that leaves our nation unresponsive and unprepared for the future, and avoiding devastating sequester cuts that would set us back decades, I have a solution for them. It's not rocket science. In fact, two years running now, Senator Collins and I have written some incredibly bipartisan funding bills here on the Senate side, and here's how we did it. We don't attach our wish list to a must-pass government spending bill. We sit down and figure out what both of us can agree to and we focus on what will make life better for the American people. So I'm here today to urge the House Republicans to get to the table, get serious, and put the American people first.

Thank you, Patty. Ready for some questions? Yes.

Thank you. Do you believe that the CR negotiations need to be the four corners of leadership, or do you think this is something that you and Leader McConnell could just negotiate over here?

Look, it's always best if the four corners of leadership are included. And obviously in the Senate you need Republican votes. So four corners is best.

Question.

Yes.

What does Kamala Harris need to do in the debate tonight to move this race forward?

She's going to... I think she's going to do great at the debate. She's going to not only talk about what has already been accomplished, but the things she wants to accomplish for the American people, for working families. And I think she's going to do real well.

Why do you and why do Democrats oppose the SAFE Act, one? And second, Donald Trump just said if Republicans don't get election security assurances that they're demanding, they should shut down the government.

Well, Donald Trump ran into trouble years ago and he threatened... When he said he'd owned shutting down the government. The bottom line is we want a bipartisan negotiation. We will sit down and do a bipartisan negotiation. That's the only way to pass it.

Can you say that?

As I said, we want a bipartisan negotiation, period. I'm not going to get into the details.

We don't want chaos. There is no reason for that. The American people want us to do our jobs. That's what we're doing in the Senate. That's what the House should do.

Yeah. Sit down with us, talk about the, bill and we can come up with a bipartisan agreement. Simple. Yes.

Mr. Schumer, Donald Trump seems to be, again, hyping the risk of election fraud. Are you worried about the potential of more violence and some other January 6th like scenario this year?

Look, I hope not. And I hope any responsible leader, Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, would discourage any type of violence. Obviously you want to be vigilant and make sure everything is on the up and up when people vote, but you also want to make sure that people aren't blocked from voting when they have a legitimate right to vote. Okay. Thanks, everybody.

Thank you.

Well, I'm sure you all are excited to have us all back, right? Well, look, I think we all know the world is literally at war here and on the Senate... Far be it for me to criticize anybody about focusing on judges but when you compare confirming district court judges to not having up the National Defense Authorization Act, you got to question the priorities of the majority. This is an important piece of legislation, we pass it every year, I think for 60 years in a row, and we're spending our time doing district judges. I think it's misplaced priorities. We can't stop doing everything just because it's a presidential election this year. Majority leader needs to address some of the genuine problems that the country has.

Well, there's a big presidential debate tonight. I think everybody around the country is asking the question, "Who is the vice president and what does she actually stand for?" After all, she's only done one interview since she became the Democrat nominee, and she spent the last month basically trying to reverse herself from all the positions that she previously held, which is hard to do because when she was in the Senate running for vice president, she had the record as the single most liberal United States Senator. And they've used every chance since she has been part of the Biden administration to move the country in a very left position. And now she's trying to run away from her own record. She said that she would ban fracking and now she says that she won't. She said that the border wall was a waste of time and un-American, and now she has moved away from that position. (12:49) She has flip-flopped on confiscating guns, the electric vehicle mandate, expanding the Supreme Court, and heck, she's even flip-flopped on plastic straws. So I think what she's realized, that all these positions that she staked out are way far left of where the American people are and that her positions are incredibly unpopular. So anyone trying to understand what a Harris presidency would mean should look no further than the last four years and her record as vice president. Inflation is up 20.2%. There have been 10 million people who have come across the border illegally and if given another four years in office, I believe a Harris presidency of high prices and open borders would be very much the same as what she has delivered for the past four years.

Kamala Harris is a dangerous San Francisco liberal. She has flip-flopped on one position after another as she's run for president because she's trying to run away from her radical record. On the one so-called interview that she did, she said, "Well, that didn't really matter," because she said her values hadn't changed. Well, her values call for defunding the police, but coddling the criminals. Her values call for banning certain American energy products, making energy prices go up. Her values call for eliminating private health insurance in America, but giving free healthcare to illegal immigrants as well as free housing, as well as debit cards loaded with taxpayer cash. Under Kamala Harris, the crime and the chaos that we see in San Francisco, that would be the face of America. So tonight they're having a debate and she's going to use phrases like "on day one" and "laser focused." (14:54) Well, her day one was almost four years ago, and when she and Joe Biden and the Democrats focused their laser, they've caused massive misery for American families. Prices are up across the board, over 20%, 10 million illegal immigrants into this country, people from criminal cartels, drug dealers, people on the terrorist watch list. Kamala Harris proclaimed that Bidenomics is working and she proclaimed that the border wall, she said it was stupid waste of money. Two out of three Americans say this country is heading in the wrong direction and in order to try to get elected president, Kamala Harris is flipping more of her positions than IHOP flips pancakes. Well, the thing about IHOP is they only flip once. She's going to flip just right back again after the election no matter how it turns out because as she said, her values haven't changed.

So just a week ago today, I returned from my fourth trip to the Middle East since the October 7th attacks. And my mission and what we hear from all over America is, number one, we must ensure the survival of Israel. Number two, we must decimate Hamas. And number three, we must see the return of our American hostages. So while I was in the region, I had the opportunity to have dinner with our hostage families in Jerusalem. And just several days after that, the absolute unthinkable happened and we learned of the murder of Hersh Goldberg-Polin. I had just spent time with his mom, Rachel and his father, John, and we were talking together about the return of their son. And unfortunately, his return is not what we had hoped to see. So while I was in the region, while I was visiting with leaders of not only Israel but the Arab nations that maybe could get Hamas to the table, where's President Biden? (17:16) President Biden's hanging out at the beach, kicked back in a lawn chair. Where's Kamala Harris? She's on the campaign trail. Can't even bring it to her tongue to mention our hostages, nor those Americans that were killed on October 7th. Leaders in the region, while I was visiting with them, stated they have given up on American. As someone who served in the military in that region during wartime, you can't imagine how hurtful that is. We have given blood and treasure to stabilize that region, only to have President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who is always the last person in the room, to have them throw it away. This is a consequence of three and a half years of weak leadership coming out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. (18:29) Just four years ago, however, it was a different story and we were celebrating the Abraham Accords under President Donald J. Trump. What a remarkable achievement that brought Israel and her Arab friends together! Trump brought all of our partners together. And it wasn't just military strength, it was trade and the economy. It was education. It was peace and prosperity for everyone involved. We need to build upon these Abraham Accords and unfortunately, Kamala Harris isn't going to secure that for us in the future. What she promises is greater instability in the region. So folks, we need to get back to that peace and prosperity, but we need strong leadership to do it. And that will be Donald J. Trump.

Well, it's nice to be back in Washington after several weeks at home in West Virginia, talking with folks in and around the country. And really what's top of mind in my state, because we're so heavily affected by the Fentanyl scourge that is just rampant throughout this country, is immigration and the 10 million-plus people who are now in this country because of the failed Biden-Harris policies. So tonight we're going to see... Hopefully, we'll see a big contrast between President Trump who brought the numbers down, who had reasonable policies in place that he as president put into effect, and the contrast being Vice President Harris, who on day one, she and President Biden opened the borders by moving through a lot of executive orders and taking down what former President Trump had been able to do. (20:20) So we've heard in 2020 she said, "The border wall is a complete waste of money." In 2019 she said, "We don't need to build a wall. It's not an emergency." In 2022, she had an interview with Chuck Todd where she said not once but twice, "The border is secure." And who's believing that? This is two years ago. That was probably 6 million people in to where we are now. She also said in 2022 in an interview that she had actually been to the border when in fact the interviewer, Lester Holt, had to say, "No, you haven't." And she says, "Well, I haven't been to Europe either." I mean, what a flippant answer to a very serious question. So this is who she really is. (21:13) These are unguarded moments where we've been able to see her in her past life, but we haven't seen her like this because she's had that one interview and she's been in a bubble as she campaigns. So tonight, I think that the border is going to be top of mind of many people in this country, whether it's the crime, the Fentanyl, or just the illegality and the unfairness of letting people just run into our country, stay here seven or eight years, have their case heard if they even respond to have their case heard. I think the vice president has shown herself and was appointed a leader in this area and she's been a miserable failure.

Well, there's good reason why we haven't seen Kamala Harris out campaigning of some of these key Senate battleground states like Montana or Ohio because Kamala Harris is the most liberal candidate running for president the Democrat party has ever nominated. And don't take my word for it. Washington Post's Philip Bump said on August 13th, 2020, and I quote, "In 2017, Harris was the eighth most liberal US. In 2018, fourth. And as she prepared a 2020 presidential run, she became the most liberal joining Senators Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, and Kirsten Gillibrand, all of whom also ran." Kamala Harris is also the least electable of 10 possible Democrat nominees. And don't take my word for it, that was the New York Times that talked about that this past summer. She's unelectable because her positions are radical. She called the border wall a waste of taxpayer money. She called to ban fracking. (23:13) She called to defund the police. She co-sponsored legislation to mandate electric vehicles. She tried to change her positions, but the American people are now onto her. And as the New York Times poll from this past weekend shows that shine is wearing off. The American people are smart. They know that Kamala Harris is not only a liberal, she's disingenuous because she's tried to change her positions. And don't take my word it. When asked about Kamala Harris's flip-flops, Bernie Sanders said Kamala Harris is "doing what she thinks is right to win the election." But Bernie also said at that same time, "I do consider her a progressive." She has the Bernie Sanders seal of approval as being a progressive. So if you like San Francisco politics, you're going to love Kamala Harris. In other words, Kamala Harris is still the radical out-of-touch California liberal that she's always been. And the American people know it and will right this ship eight weeks from today.

Leader McConnell, do you support the house strategy to push government funding until March and also include the SAFE Act in there? Or do you agree with Leader Schumer that this is going to result in a shutdown?

Well, I think we first have to see what the House sends us, and then of course, how to handle that will be up to the majority leader. I would remind you I've been both. Majority is better, but the first step ought to be what comes out of the House and I think we don't know right now.

Leader McConnell, you have seen a lot of these government funding battles yourself. There are some Republicans who argue the SAFE Act is worth risking a shutdown just five weeks before the election. Do you think that could jeopardize Republican prospects?

I'm sorry, say that again?

Do you think a government shutdown, if it happens over the SAFE Act, could jeopardize Republican prospects in the election?

A government shutdown is always a bad idea at any time.

Leader McConnell, Donald Trump just posted on Truth Social that he believes that Republicans should shut down the government if they don't get the SAFE Act or election security passed ahead of the election. Do you agree with that?

Well, as I just said, shutting down the government is always a bad idea no matter what time of year it is.

Senator McConnell, your friend, Dick Cheney over the weekend endorsed Kamala Harris. He called Trump the single biggest threat to the Republic in its history. Should Republicans listen to Dick Cheney, or is he wrong?

Well, you'd have to ask Dick Cheney about that. Thank you.

You don't have anything on it?