Senate Democratic leaders hold their weekly press briefing.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Okay. Good afternoon, everybody. I'm proud to be joined by Senators Wyden and Reid. Today
00:19we're here to talk about two things with massive importance to all Americans. Social security
00:27and national security. First, yesterday, Senate Democrats, alongside all other Americans,
00:36found that the Defense Secretary shared classified war plans in a group chat with the CIA Director,
00:45National Security Advisor, and Vice President of the United States. For the Defense Secretary
00:51to coordinate war plans in such a haphazard and dangerous way puts our national security,
00:58our troops, and every single American at risk. Even after the administration confirmed the
01:06authenticity of the texts, Secretary Hexeth continued to deflect and blame the reporter.
01:14He does something really damaging to national security, and he blames the reporter who his
01:21people sent the information to. What gall. This is the Secretary of Defense. This is the man
01:31leading our troops into battle and is meant to protect Americans and our national security at
01:37all costs. The Senate, as well as all relevant authorities within the executive branch, must
01:43investigate this incident fully. Fully. We need the Senate to do it. I hope Senator Thune will
01:52join me in that. We also need the IG of the DOD to do it as well. As Senate Republicans scramble
02:00to defend Hexeth from endangering our national security, the administration continues to gut
02:08Social Security right in front of our very eyes. Social Security was already at its lowest staff
02:15level in decades, but instead of working to make sure seniors get their hard-earned benefits,
02:21Trump, Musk, and Doge are laying off more than 7,000 Social Security workers. These are the
02:28people who answer the questions for seniors, make sure they're getting the proper benefits as
02:32quickly as possible. Some offices have reported waits, most offices of many hours. Some, I heard
02:41one instance, five-hour wait. Someone waited on the phone. On top of gutting the workforce, Trump,
02:49Musk, Doge are trying to close the regional field offices. Up to 60% of regional offices are being
02:57shut down. Social Security serves 73 million Americans. Over 30 million of those go into their
03:04local offices each year, more than close to half. How does closing offices and firing thousands of
03:12workers help seniors and the disabled get benefits? What they're trying to do, what they're trying to
03:19do is erode away at the American dream, rigging the system for billionaires while stealing from
03:26American families and elderly in order to make tax cuts for the rich. Let's be very clear. What's
03:35happening right now in Social Security is a benefit cut, a benefit cut. Fewer people will get benefits
03:43because of what they've done. This is another way of killing Social Security, plain and simple.
03:51They're shutting off phone lines, closing down field offices, firing people. It's clear what
03:58they're doing. They can't outwardly cut benefits because it would be so unpopular. They're just
04:04making it harder for you to get benefits. Same thing, different route, same nasty result. Americans
04:16aren't falling for it. Today, the Washington Post showed that while Elon Musk is claiming massive
04:22waste at the agency, he has no evidence, no evidence to back that up. He just wants to kill the
04:29program one way or another. Why are they doing this? Why would they do this? This is so politically
04:36unpopular because a clique of billionaires just control what the government is doing. They don't
04:44care about people. You heard what Lutnick said the other day. If you miss your check, it doesn't
04:51matter. Well, that's true if you have a billionaire son-in-law, but it's not true for people who
04:56depend on the check each month, each week, each day for their food, for their medicine. So, today was
05:07SAA nominee Frank Bisognano's hearing. Ron will talk about it. But given his history, he used to be
05:13sent into companies to slash personnel and the administration slashing burn policy. It should be
05:21an easy vote. Any Republican who votes yes on Bisognano is voting to cut Social Security for our
05:30seniors. Any Republican who votes yes on Bisognano is voting to cut Social Security for our seniors.
05:39Time is short to stop permanent damage to Social Security administration. If Republicans continue to do
05:45nothing, the political backlash will be unprecedented. Senator Weidner.
05:56Thank you, Leader Schumer. And I'm going to be brief and just touch on a couple of key issues. First,
06:04this nominee for Social Security is up to his eyeballs in DOJ. And today, we demonstrated that he did not
06:13tell the truth about his track record with respect to Social Security. He claimed, for example, that he
06:20had no involvement with DOJ in terms of insisting that people be embedded who are close to DOJ, be
06:27part of watering down people's protections for their data. And a very senior ex-Social Security person
06:35basically said that he lied. We're happy to make that statement available to all of you. We made it part of
06:42the record today. But the reality is that there are some areas where seniors are just terrified right now,
06:52and it starts with the phone system. And I asked him repeatedly, for example, if he would take some of the
06:59common sense steps that are necessary to get phone service, you know, back. And as far as I can tell, he thinks
07:06that AI is a silver bullet. And I pointed out to him when he came in, as well, that a lot of seniors are not
07:14exactly signing up for chatbots and looking for all these so-called fixes. And my God, I wouldn't want to see
07:21somebody like United Healthcare involved in this, you know, particular area of services. So what this is
07:28really all about, in terms of Musk and this nominee, is they want to hollow out Social Security. They want to
07:38hollow out the essential functions that the government has performed, and then say, oh my goodness, we've
07:45got to get some private contractors in. So what I can tell you is, what the Senate Finance Committee heard
07:52today was what I call a prelude to privatization. Because what you do is you set it up this way, you start
08:01dismantling the government functions, then you go to private contractors, all of a sudden you've got something
08:07that's completely privatized. This nominee said he knew nothing about privatization. I urge all of you to look at
08:16the statement from the whistleblower, because that statement indicates that we've got big problems with
08:22DOJ right now, in terms of their looking at private data that is basically the Fort Knox of American data
08:31systems, and we're not going to have the ability to protect people as we ought to. So this is a crucial kind of time.
08:39I'm doing everything I can to mobilize attention to this, because in terms of phone systems and offices and
08:47personnel, I asked him again and again if he would take some common sense steps to actually help terrified
08:54seniors, and he basically said he was too busy. He said, we're going to have to do that another time. Thank you, Senator Schumer.
09:01At this moment, the White House and Secretary Hicks are trying desperately to underplay an extraordinary blunder.
09:15We cannot overstate how serious of a disaster it is. If an American service member texted classified information about an active
09:28military operation to an unknown number on an unclassified app, they would be dismissed, investigated, and prosecuted.
09:39But the White House says there was no classified intelligence in this signal group. If that's true, the administration should
09:48immediately provide a copy of the group chat to Congress and the American people so we can make our own determination.
09:58I also understand that the messages in this signal chat were set to erase themselves after a certain amount of time.
10:07This would be a violation of federal records preservation laws. As such, the administration must preserve and provide a full
10:17transcript of these sessions immediately. Put simply, this has been one of the most egregious failures of operational security and
10:32common sense that I have ever seen. Up until now, military operations have been handled with the utmost discretion, using approved,
10:43secured lines of communication, because American lives are on the line. We need answers and accountability immediately.
10:53We should be grateful, frankly, that it was Jeffrey Goldberg, a responsible reporter, and not a foreign adversary who received this
11:03intelligence. Had this information been available to the Houthis in advance of the strikes, it could not only have allowed them to seek
11:11shelter, but it could also have allowed them to reposition anti-aircraft weapons that have put the lives of our aviators and other service
11:21members at risk. Taking a step back, all of this happened as the Trump administration systematically degrades America's national security in
11:35multiple ways. And I hope our Republican colleagues will join us in demanding answers and accountability for this incident. To quote Secretary
11:47Higstead himself, talking about the mishandling of classified documents, quote, if at the very top there is no accountability, then two tiers of
11:59justice exist. There must be one tier of justice, and Mr. Higstead should follow that path of justice. Secretary Higstead, however, went
12:13forward and deliberately sent the details of a military strike package, including the movement of U.S. service members in an active combat zone on an
12:24unclassified app without confirming who the recipients were. I can't imagine that this information was not classified. President Trump has long
12:36advocated for accountability and transparency in the government, particularly as it relates to national security and the safety of American
12:44servicemen. As such, I trust he will address this breach with the seriousness and the diligence that it demands. I again request Secretary Higstead to
12:57submit a full transcript of his signal messages to the Armed Services Committee. There is no legitimate basis for him to withhold information from the
13:07committee that he claims is unclassified and has already been shared with a journalist. And I urge a bipartisan investigation and swift action. Thank you.
13:21Thank you. Yes, right here.
13:23Mr. President, are you calling for the resignation of Secretary Higstead?
13:28Pardon?
13:29Are you calling for the resignation of Secretary Higstead?
13:32Look, what he did is despicable. We need a complete and thorough investigation, both by the IG within DOD, but also the Senate and the House. The Senate Democrats and
13:45Republicans should look into this and have a full investigation. Republicans should not turn their head the other way with something so serious.
13:53Thank you, Mr. President. On foreign policy, Secretary Lucia Pence will be making a visit to Greenland soon. And this comes at a time when President Trump has talked about
14:03announcing Greenland and bringing it into the United States. What do you make of this visit? And do you support the administration's talk and rhetoric about acquiring a more
14:12tangible agreement?
14:34Mr. Speaker, I see that Donald Trump gave a defunding of the courts today. And I was wondering if you had a response given that it is, in theory, the President's
14:43decision to pass under a resignation, right?
14:45It's outrageous to even think of defunding the courts. The courts are the bulwark against Trump, and the Republicans can't stand it. But that's our system of laws. We will fight in every way to keep funding the courts.
14:59On Social Security, sir. Republicans argue that the Social Security system is antiquated, that the computer system needs to be updated, that it would actually serve these recipients better. Do you think there's any merit to that?
15:11Tell that to the 73 million Americans who believe and need Social Security. Tell that to the millions of people who are not getting answers, who have their offices closed so they can't get their checks. They are so wrong on Social Security. We thought they had learned their lesson. They have not.
15:30Peter Sherman, have you spoken to AOC, your New York colleague, recently?