Speaker 1: What is the mood amongst your fellow Democrats right now.
Speaker 2: Well, it's one of.
Speaker 3: Introspection to see what we need to do in terms
Speaker 3: of connecting with rural communities, with the industrialized towns, factory towns,
Speaker 3: communities of color, working class voters, to build trust. But
Speaker 3: it's also one of resolve, a sense that we can
Speaker 3: win back in twenty twenty six, win back in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty eight, stand up to the president when he engages
Speaker 3: in actions that are extreme and betray the people who
Speaker 3: voted for him.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like that there's a plan or a
Speaker 1: plan coming together inside the House where there is a
Speaker 1: vision to be able to block to pick up a
Speaker 1: couple vulnerable Republican members, to help you block Trump from
Speaker 1: doing his worst, including perhaps even voting to restrict funding
Speaker 1: to some of Trump's more abusive policies. Has anybody sat
Speaker 1: down so far and with you in the room, and
Speaker 1: I would hope you would be one of the people
Speaker 1: in the room and said, we're not going to talk
Speaker 1: about what happened in the election, We're not going to
Speaker 1: talk about why we're sitting in the minority by two seats.
Speaker 1: We're gonna have a conversation about what the plan is
Speaker 1: going to be come the noon hour on January twentieth,
Speaker 1: to be upfront in opposition to the abuses that we
Speaker 1: know are coming down the high way way.
Speaker 2: Is that going on? It is?
Speaker 3: I just was chatting with Jamie Raskin this morning in
Speaker 3: the House Democratic Caucus, and he was talking about how
Speaker 3: do we focus our attention on the most egregious abuses?
Speaker 3: And we are having those conversations with the ranking members
Speaker 3: on our committees. In fact, this morning we were electing
Speaker 3: ranking members to so that every day on the House
Speaker 3: floor in House committees, Democrats are speaking out about what's
Speaker 3: going on and shining a light to it. In some sense,
Speaker 3: we are the front lines of letting people know what
Speaker 3: the Trump administration is doing and calling it out. In
Speaker 3: terms of Republicans joining in that effort, you know, the
Speaker 3: Republican Caucus has not suddenly become more functional. I mean
Speaker 3: just today, I'm having to possibly cancel my trip and
Speaker 3: meetings in New York end of the week because it
Speaker 3: looks like we're stuck here and they can't get a
Speaker 3: continuing resolution. So it's not going to take a lot
Speaker 3: of work to find cracks in a Republican caucus. But
Speaker 3: right now, under Hakeem Jeffrey's leadership, I mean, we're focused
Speaker 3: on how do we have a vibrant, vocal, strong party
Speaker 3: ready to go on January twentieth, willing to call out
Speaker 3: the president when he does things that are clearly wrong.
Speaker 1: With regard to the continuing resolution. As I understand the
Speaker 1: politics of this right now, the Speaker Johnson wants this
Speaker 1: to go into March, and Senate Republicans are saying, please God, no,
Speaker 1: we want to clean slate coming into the Trump presidency.
Speaker 1: We don't want to be stuck trying to fund the
Speaker 1: government in the first sixty days of the Trump presidency,
Speaker 1: in the middle of whatever it is he has planned,
Speaker 1: with the possibility that we have a chaotic situation? Am
Speaker 1: I assessing that correctly? That's the politics of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And you've.
Speaker 3: Got, as always some Republicans saying, we don't want these
Speaker 3: continuing resolutions. We want to have a regular process. We
Speaker 3: want to have a regular budget. The problem is when
Speaker 3: they want a regular budget, they've got an extreme caucus
Speaker 3: that wants to cut Social Security, cut Medicare, cut veterans benefits,
Speaker 3: cut food stamps, and Johnson knows that if they actually
Speaker 3: made those cuts.
Speaker 2: They'd lose thirty seats. And so this is the dance
Speaker 2: song and dance they've been playing for over.
Speaker 3: A year that they keep giving the Continuing Resolution because
Speaker 3: they don't have the votes on their side to pass
Speaker 3: a budget that isn't catastrophic.
Speaker 1: And what puts Trump in the most difficult position? Do
Speaker 1: you think planning this till March and giving him the ball?
Speaker 3: Well, look, I think that first were the Democrats are
Speaker 3: committed to doing what's right for the country, aren't looking
Speaker 3: at it from the lens of politics. And what will
Speaker 3: be terrible is to have some kind of government shut
Speaker 3: down before Christmas.
Speaker 2: And before the holidays.
Speaker 3: So we as long as they're not making cuts to
Speaker 3: Social Security and food Stamps and veterans benefits, are going
Speaker 3: to pass the Continuing Resolution.
Speaker 2: But I think that is the likely outcome. And then
Speaker 2: Trump is going.
Speaker 3: To have to decide what is he what is he
Speaker 3: going to do to get a budget and where is
Speaker 3: he going to.
Speaker 2: Be willing to cut?
Speaker 3: And he's going to have a lot of pressure from
Speaker 3: House Republicans to make cuts for programs that working class
Speaker 3: and middle class folks rely.
Speaker 1: On in this vote, in this debate, So people who
Speaker 1: are watching and listening to this, so they understand basically
Speaker 1: postpones that larger debate until after Trump is president sometime
Speaker 1: in March. When this continuing Resolution this basic, we'll put
Speaker 1: it off till then postponement comes due.
Speaker 3: Correct the continuing Resolution says we can fund government at
Speaker 3: the levels it is right now, no cuts, but we're
Speaker 3: going to wait to pass a full budget in March.
Speaker 2: If we get the three months continuing resolution.
Speaker 1: And this will give Democrats, then in a two seat minority,
Speaker 1: probably their maximum point of political leverage in dealing with
Speaker 1: Donald Trump potentially abusing the powers of the presidency on
Speaker 1: a range of issues with the power of the purse.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is going to mean that Johnson will
Speaker 3: need Democratic votes. I can't imagine that he's going to
Speaker 3: be able to get a budget passed without democratic votes.
Speaker 3: He hasn't been able to do it so far. And
Speaker 3: so Keem Jeffries, our leader, is going to have the
Speaker 3: leverage to go to Johnson and say, Okay, we're going
Speaker 3: to give you the votes because you're not going to
Speaker 3: want to be blamed for a shutdown a government. You
Speaker 3: have every branch, you know, you got the House, you
Speaker 3: got the Senate vote, Chambers, you got the presidency.
Speaker 2: The Supreme Court.
Speaker 3: Is Republican appointees. The American people know you're in charge.
Speaker 3: But if you don't want to fail, we're willing to
Speaker 3: give you the votes in good faith.
Speaker 2: But you can't, you know, have.
Speaker 3: A Justice Department trying to put Liz Cheney and Jamie
Speaker 3: Raskin in jail. You can't be mass supporting eleven million
Speaker 3: undocumented immigrants, not criminals, but actual immigrants who have American families.
Speaker 3: Here where the American families, American citizens are getting caught
Speaker 3: up in these raids, and that is a power that
Speaker 3: the House Democrats will have. Look, I'm bias, Steve, but
Speaker 3: the action in the first six months in terms of
Speaker 3: standing up.
Speaker 2: To the worst of Trump is going to fall on
Speaker 2: House Democrats.
Speaker 1: No doubt about that. And do you do you feel
Speaker 1: like your team is ready? Do you go when team
Speaker 1: Jefferies is ready?
Speaker 3: I do. I mean, Hakeem is disciplined, he's eloquent, and
Speaker 3: he is strong, and the caucus is very united. I mean,
Speaker 3: I know you read in the press generational battles and
Speaker 3: that's all good.
Speaker 2: I mean there, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: it's a united FUCUS.
Speaker 3: For example, today we had AOC running against Connolly.
Speaker 2: I voted for AOC.
Speaker 3: She lost Connolly one. You know, AC went over and
Speaker 3: hugged Connolly. We're all now on the same team getting
Speaker 3: the stakes of holding Trump accountable. So are there differences, Sure,
Speaker 3: But it's as unified a caucus as I have seen
Speaker 3: in my nine years in Congress.
Speaker 2: And that's because people get the stakes.
Speaker 1: If you had to take her aside afterwards, what would
Speaker 1: you what would you say right or what would be
Speaker 1: fair to say to her that well, if you want
Speaker 1: to win one of these elections next time, to chair
Speaker 1: a major committee in the Congress, in your caucus, you
Speaker 1: have to.
Speaker 3: Do what Well, first of all, I think we should
Speaker 3: elevate her, and I hope after Connolly she's next.
Speaker 2: She got eighty four votes.
Speaker 3: But I would say, spend time with some of the
Speaker 3: key members, some of the more senior members. Just have
Speaker 3: coffee with them, get to know them, spend time with
Speaker 3: the Congressional Black Caucus.
Speaker 2: Spend time campaigning.
Speaker 3: As you have so effectively in building a base outside
Speaker 3: of Congress, you know, continue to do that within Congress.
Speaker 3: And you know, she did a lot of that, so
Speaker 3: I don't want to be seeming lam giving her advice
Speaker 3: that she's not already doing.
Speaker 2: She's only been in Congress six years.
Speaker 3: But I think if she continues on that trajectory, she
Speaker 3: has a very very good chance of being the chair
Speaker 3: of the Oversight Committee, which is a big deal. Like
Speaker 3: Henry Waxman chaired this committee, so to be the chair
Speaker 3: of this in her thirties, if she's next in line,
Speaker 3: is a pretty remarkable thing.
Speaker 1: I'm Steve Schmidt. This is the warning and I invite
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