LIVE: House Democrat Leaders Hold Weekly Press Conference (Nov. 7)

shutdown. I urge Republicans to pass a clean CR. The reason we're here is because they themselves shut down the floor of the House of Representatives for three weeks. They own this problem. They caused a delay. They should not inflict this on American people. I urge them to pass a clean CR. And with that, I'm so honored to introduce the wonderful co-chair of our Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, Lauren Underwood. Good morning, everyone. We are here today as a government shutdown looms once again in just 10 days. It is yet another crisis in a series of them this year created by extreme MAGA Republican majority. Let's just take a moment and recap. Earlier this year, they engineered a devastating default threat that would have created a global economic meltdown before finally agreeing to a bipartisan deal. Then they went back on that deal and brought us to the brink of a government shutdown at the end of September. Then they abruptly threw out their own speaker, leaving the House without a Republican leader for almost four weeks in October. This is not governing, it's grandstanding. And yet every step of the way, despite this Republican-led chaos and dysfunction, House Democrats have been here, united as always, putting people over politics. Once again, we are ready to pass legislation that fully funds our government and keeps our promises to the American people. But with only 10 days to go, extreme Republicans, on direct orders from their new speaker, are still playing political games and pushing harsh and unworkable cuts to services and investments that working families are counting on. Cuts that would devastate our communities and undermine our investments in everything from healthcare to saving future generations from the threats of climate change. Enough is enough. Our community sent us here to deliver results, to create jobs and bring down the cost of living, to grow our middle class and defend our freedoms. It is long past time that this majority stops playing political games and starts working with us to fulfill those responsibilities. I am so pleased to yield to my colleague and friend, Congresswoman Mikey Sherrill. Well, I just want to thank everyone for being here this morning and tearing yourselves away from the New Jersey elections. But it is great to be talking about such weighty and important issues because over two weeks ago, President Biden sent Congress an urgent supplemental funding request to address the crisis we face around the world, including a terrorist attack against Israel and more than 200 hostages held captive by Hamas, a humanitarian crisis in Gaza with innocent civilians running out of water, food and medicine, Ukraine's continued defense against Putin's brutal invasion and China's rising aggression towards Taiwan and regional ambitions. The president clearly underscored the danger if we let terrorists or tyrants act without consequence. House Democrats agree that we are at an inflection point, that America's response to these crises matters and that inaction is unacceptable. As a former Navy helicopter pilot and Russian policy officer, I know that the U.S. cannot walk away from these fights if we want to preserve and protect democracy. But Speaker Johnson has decided to retreat as the world is in crisis. Instead of sending a strong message about America's resolve, he abandoned allies and politicized aid to Israel with an unserious, inadequate bill, a bill with supposed offsets that in fact add billions to the deficit, fails to include humanitarian aid to Gaza, and that's dead on arrival in the Senate. This is no way to lead or govern. We must instead address these crises as a whole because they're connected in the fight for freedom and democracy. We've seen that Ukraine's enemies are, in fact, also Israel's enemies. Russia recently hosted Hamas leaders in Moscow and a Hamas spokesperson called Russia their, quote, closest friend. Iran is working hand in glove with Putin, supplying drones and munitions for the war in Ukraine as they supply Hezbollah and support attacks against American assets worldwide, 38 and counting in the last month, with 46 Americans injured, eight attacks since Friday alone. So it's time for House Republicans to wake up to this reality. The Senate is working together on a package, but House Republicans are missing in action when it comes to standing up for democracy abroad. If the U.S. retreats, imagine the message that sends to China as they eye an invasion of Taiwan. Imagine the message it sends when Putin wants to go beyond Ukraine's borders further into Eastern Europe. Walking away now would be a win for Hamas, a win for Putin, and a win for Xi. But bundling our assistance would show the rest of the world, especially China, Russia, and Iran, that despite the work of extremists on the fringes, the vast majority of American lawmakers stand ready to support our democratic partners. Congress must meet this moment. We cannot let petty politics diminish America's leadership or responsibilities on the global stage. Thank you, and back to Pete. Thank you, Representatives Sherrill and Underwood, and Vice Chair Liu. Questions? There's going to be a vote on the two-thirds of the special resolution. Representative Jacobs introduced one against Congressman Matt last night. Representative Beiland introduced one against Marjorie Sondland Greene last week. Are you concerned that that is evolving into kind of a censure-palooza, so to speak, that we're just turning it to this 10-for-10 censure situation? It's your term, not mine, censure-palooza. But look, I will say that this isn't productive right now. We're 10 days from a government shutdown. Republicans have put on the floor bills that massively cut programs that help people, terrorism programs within financial services and general government bill, Amtrak cuts, Northeast transportation cuts, housing, affordable housing cuts within these bills. These are bad policy bills. We should be talking about that in addition to what the Republican plan is in the next 10 days to fund government. These are less helpful measures, but these are privileged resolutions that may get votes on the floor. And so we will deal with them, and we will vote on them if the majority puts them on the floor and gives them time. Congresswoman Tlaib shared this video last week accusing Joe Biden, the president of the United States, leader of your party, of supporting genocide. What do you think of that, and what consequences should she face for that kind of accusation? Strenuously disagree with the statement. The video could not disagree more with the term. I think it's offensive, and I think she understands that from her conversations with her colleagues. We are focused on providing, as Representative Sherrill mentioned, providing aid to Israel, defeating Hamas, providing resources, humanitarian resources, and ensuring that the hostages are freed. That is the focus of the Biden administration. That is the focus of House Democrats. That is where we want to devote our energy, our ideas, and that's where we know a legislative path should be helpful. So we want to talk about the substance of the policy, meeting those objectives, freeing hostages, defeating Hamas, and providing humanitarian relief to the Palestinian people. That is the most important thing that we need to be talking about right now. Everything else is a distraction and a diversion, but all members, using their voice and their platform, should stand up against bigotry, against Islamophobia, but also against anti-Semitism, as the Vice Chair mentioned. That is our obligation as members of Congress, and I hope that everybody lives up to that. I understand because you said that the Congresswoman understands that it was offensive. The video is still up. How do you know that she understands that? I know she's had conversation. I know members have indicated to her that it's offensive. That's what I said. It seems pretty clear that the sweet spot in the Senate to get a supplementary package over the finish line is going to be combining Ukraine with Israel aid, potentially Taiwan, and then some sort of border security addition. The Senate Republicans made it pretty clear yesterday that they are willing to talk about all those things, but it has to go beyond just border security funding. It also requires policy changes. They put out a paper on that yesterday. I know House Republicans have been pretty consistent on H.R. 2. I know you would agree probably with either of those packages, but is there some room for negotiations specifically on border security policy changes as part of these negotiations? The policy changes are difficult under any circumstance, but especially during these funding discussions. Adding policy measures is not helpful. I understand that Senate Republicans want to do everything they can to get as close to H.R. 2 as possible. Those are unworkable plans. That is not a real solution to alleviate what's happening at the southern border. There are opportunities to work in a bipartisan fashion. We should be doing that. We can do that. There is still time to do that. But right now, in this moment leading up to this funding deadline in the next 10 days, it's not appropriate. This is a Republican-only measure in the Senate that mirrors the Republican-only measure in the House. What we need is bipartisan solutions. That's the only way this gets fixed. That's the only way we provide national security help to our allies. That's the only way we solve any issue related to the border. That's the only way we fund government. As soon as Senate Republicans and House Republicans tune out the MAGA extremism and join us, we will be in a better situation. To address substantive policy issues that you mentioned, as well as doing the very basics of funding government. I agree with everything Chairman Aguilar said. Thank you, sir, for your question about the essential resolutions. Let me just say that today is November 7th. One month ago, Hamas engaged in a brutal terrorist invasion of Israel. Hamas is a genocidal, homicidal, religiously fanatical terrorist organization. They butchered children, decapitated elderly, and burned entire families alive. One of their rallying cries is from the river to the sea. It's also in their current charter, a charter that does not recognize the state of Israel. And in the original charter, which also did not recognize the state of Israel, they also called for the killing of all Jews. So if someone repeats that phrase in America, it is highly inflammatory. I have a district that has one of the highest populations of Jewish people outside the state of Israel, and they are scared. They're scared of rising anti-Semitism. When they see phrases like that, they feel scared. And we have the right to free speech in America. People can repeat that phrase every hour on the hour if they want to. Part of free speech is people also have the right to criticize and condemn people who use that phrase. And I just want people to understand that when you use this phrase in the context of the brutal Hamas invasion, it scares Jewish Americans. And so I just ask people to understand what they are doing when they use that phrase. You talked about just how inflammatory that is. If it is so inflammatory, isn't this just a fig leaf? Oh, this is free speech that we're hiding behind here. We disagree strenuously with the comments of Ms. Tlaib. But shouldn't she be worthy of some sort of a sanction if you truly in your heart of hearts feel so strongly about her remarks? These are privileged resolutions that will come to the floor. There will likely be motions to table. We are encouraging our members to vote yes on the motion to table and to oppose the censure. That is how the Democratic caucus is proceeding. But as we mentioned before, the continued censures are not helpful to address the crisis that we have, the funding cliff that we have in front of us, the Republican-led chaos and extremism that we see before us. These are not helpful discussions. I'll yield to the vice chair. I'll yield to the vice chair. Thanks. I said what I said. I understand about doing it on the floor. But because what you said so eloquently, these were offensive remarks, that she should be penalized internally by the caucus because as you say, your constituents are scared. My constituents are absolutely scared. Now, I know that as members of Congress, we have outsized platforms so we can individually criticize, commend, say whatever we want about any issue we want to. And so members of Congress can already do that. So it's not clear to me why when we're 10 days from a government shutdown, we're not focusing on making sure that we don't have a government shutdown. We don't know where they are going. You know, I've seen the press reports too, and the slideshows they're putting up, laddered CR that they can't even explain. It is very clear that there is an element within their conference who wants a shutdown. That has been very clear from the beginning. They voted against continuing resolutions in the past. They voted against government funding of any kind. And now the strategy that they have devised is to make these bills the most extreme ever, acknowledging that they're not going to become law. And that's a failed strategy. So wherever they put the end date of December or January, the bills that they are talking about, the substance of the bills are not going to become law. We can have a discussion about timing for a CR. We would prefer a clean CR. That is the most certain path for government agencies to avoid a shutdown while giving Congress the space and the time to work toward a bipartisan set of appropriations bills. I'll yield to fellow appropriator Lauren Underwood if she has anything. Well, I think that a laddered CR is a plan to maximize the chaos that this extreme Republican conference has become known for. It is not a serious proposal to getting us to a bipartisan solution, which is year-long government funding packages. And, you know, I think it's unacceptable. Okay. Yeah. Go ahead. Republicans are trying to avoid aid pressures with family members of hostages taken by Camas. So I was wondering if there are any discussions between Democrats and Republicans, and perhaps more aid, and if it's not more aid, what else can we do to help those people? I'll ask Vice Chair Liu and Mikey Sherrill to comment, too. This is the height of hypocrisy from the Republican conference. They voted for a package that left out humanitarian aid just last week. By the way, an extremely partisan plan that is not going to become law that blows up our deficit and ignores the humanitarian crisis that they acknowledge. The Biden administration has been incredibly focused on defeating Hamas, getting the hostages released, and providing humanitarian aid. We hope that our Republican colleagues share those same goals, but it appears, based on the vote they had last week, as well as the press conferences that they're having this week, that I'm not certain that they share those values. But that is what we are focused on. That is where we feel the policy should guide us toward, and we welcome them to engage with us in a bipartisan path that meets those objectives. So I've spoken to family members of the hostages, and what I heard from them was that the current bombing plan is not going to free the hostages. I'll tell you that's why I've requested a humanitarian pause so we can come up with a plan. I've also spoken to our special operators. I think the casualty numbers that we would see in attempts to rescue the hostages are very high, incredibly high. At the end, we're not sure if they would get a live hostage freed at that time. So there's a lot of concerns about how we're going to do this. What we need to do is put pressure on Hamas to free the hostages. We need, I think, to bring in our partners in the region, partners like Egypt and Jordan and Saudi Arabia and others, to put this pressure on and determine the best path forward and how we are going to both end Hamas' rule in the region, get rid of them, make sure that we get the hostages freed, and also come up with the future path forward that is going to bring more peace and stability in the region. So again, I think when we're talking about what's going on here in this country, we need to make sure people understand how the phrases that they use have power and the words that they use have power. A river-to-the-sea plan does not include the state of Israel. That's a non-starter. I think that we need to work towards understanding how we get to a more stable situation. Netanyahu's very problematic in all of this, and I think that's why you've seen some pushback from the president saying that Israeli oversight over Gaza in the future is problematic. So these are all of the things that it's not just a U.S.-Israel discussion. It's partners in the region who need to do more to create a better situation for security and stability in the region. They simply have not done enough, and much of the funding that goes into Gaza, for example, I think simply lines the pockets of Hamas and does little to help the actual people of Gaza. Thank you.