LIVE: House Democratic Caucus Chair and Others Hold Post-Meeting Press Conference

In North Carolina, he said, quote, in the day I take the oath of office, we will rapidly drive prices down." Fast forward to today, and he's already abandoning that promise to working people, telling Time Magazine that actually driving costs down is also very hard. Is he lying the whole time, or has something changed? You know what is hard, is hard to lower the cost of living. You spend all of your time and energy trying to pass a massive ballot for the U.S. It's your job to be an actor serving a billionaire cabinet over the people that you love. Some of the same people that charge these ballots for two years in a row. Under Trump and the Republicans in Congress the American people will gain more and more votes. House Democrats have a plan to bring down the House of Leaders and Republican families by banning the Obama-Biden strategy leaving the House of Republicans to tackle the political crisis in the United States. And we're going to do it by stopping the Trump administration from doing what it's supposed to do. I'm now going to turn it over to the President of the United States to share what he thinks. Thank you. And I want to thank you for all of your hard work in organizing this process and we are going to really be ready for next year. We are ready. House Democrats are ready for what lies ahead. So we're going to if they're going to help the people that we represent we're going to be working with everybody and if they are going to be doing things that are going to only help Donald Trump's friends, the billionaires we're not going to sit by and be quiet. We are prepared for the work ahead. I'm going to give you an example of where we're probably not all together even on either side someday. Tariffs are a tool in the tool. You're from an auto state you've got manufacturing, you've got steel I'm going to work with them to protect my workers. But there are also things that last Saturday at home I sat with a group of people in Ann Arbor and I had a young man who voted for Donald Trump who said to me you know Democrats didn't take seriously the discussion about the cost of a dozen eggs. That really matters to somebody like me who's 27 years old and can't make enough money to succeed. And now he's saying it's hard to lower the cost. We are going to work to lower those grocery prices. We've been doing it and we're going to continue to do it. He talks about we're not going to let people defund public services like veterans care or take caring of our kids or what seniors rely on. And his most recent is he's talking about privatizing the post office which would hurt rural Americans the most and especially seniors and others who depend upon the United States Postal Service to deliver their medical care. And I ask you is the agenda that we're hearing right now the agenda that works for everyday working men and women. House Republicans want to give tax breaks but who's going to get the tax breaks those everyday working men and women we are going to fight for and they're going to give a lot of benefits to the ultra wealthy. I'm just one of those people that think the wealthy should have to pay their fair share and corporations should pay their fair share. Democrats are the ones that are going to put working families first. We always do. We're the party of social security and medicare. The party of job creators and quite frankly road repair. The party of common sense and our hearts again go out to the families as we are watching another senseless and not understandable shooting in Wisconsin yesterday. We're not going to stop fighting. I want to thank you for being here. I'm wishing all of you a happy holiday season. Thank you Debbie and good morning everybody. This is our last week here before we head back home to our families and our communities for our holiday break closing out what has been a very eventful year and a very eventful 100 days of Congress. Through it all every step of the way our House Democratic Caucus has made it clear that we put people in politics and we're focused on the issues that working families are focused on. We show up every day to make life better for the American people and to do the work that they sent us here to do. Bringing down poverty, keeping our government funded and open, getting families high quality affordable health care. Our community sent us here to solve problems and that has been and will continue to be our focus as we head into the 100th day of Congress. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for House Republicans. It's been a few weeks since we learned the results of the election and in that time they have made their priorities for the next two years completely clear. They want sweeping tax breaks for the richest and wealthiest Americans paid for with deep cuts to Social Security and Medicare. They have attacked LGBTQ Americans. They have plans for a nationwide abortion ban and that they will support CARES that will bring change to American families. And that's just what the House Republicans have been up to. Donald Trump has been busy starting on Project 2025, walking back on his campaign promises and filling his cabinet with unqualified and alarming tips. It's extremism and it's completely out of touch with our community. And while we will always work to find common ground on any issue, we will not yield to them. Not now and not throughout the 119th Congress. Now, our job as the DPPC is to make sure that our caucus has the tools to communicate these priorities decisively to the American people. And we are very, very excited about the work ahead. Thank you. And for more, I'm happy to turn it over to the Board Chair. Thank you, Lauren. Thank you to Chair Aguilar for hosting us. The American people made it clear in November what they want from Washington. Lower costs, better jobs, and a clear focus on the issues that matter most to working families. What they didn't vote for is Donald Trump undermining and defunding the government services that actually work for them. That's why many Americans were understandably shocked by yesterday's announcement that President-elect Trump is seeking to privatize the United States Postal Service. Millions of Americans rely on the mail every day for their life-saving prescriptions to pay their bills, receive their social holidays, mail out their presents. And they do it through the USPS because they can do it in a timely fashion and at a cost they can afford. That's why, year in and year out, the Postal Service is rated one of the most trusted, reliable agencies in our country. Tell me how getting this service to a billionaire CEO who will raise prices to pad their bottom line helps working families who will be forced to pay more. You can't because it doesn't make any sense. This is a classic bait-and-switch by Donald Trump who, since Election Day, has proven that he is willing to say one thing on the campaign trail but do another in office. In fact, in addition to taking steps to increase Americans' shipping and delivery costs, the President-Elect is also walking back his promise to lower grocery prices. He's not even in office yet and he's decided that it's just too hard. Let's be clear. House Democrats will not give up on the fight to lower prices for working families and we're willing to work hard with any of our colleagues who are serious about joining us in that effort. But privatizing the United States Postal Service will do the opposite. It'll raise prices for families and House Democrats will oppose any effort like that that will hurt hard-working Americans. Thank you and it's now my pleasure to turn it over to my fellow co-chair, Mark Wilkerson. Thank you, Laurie. Good morning, everybody. And like Chair Dingell did, I just want to express my condolences to the families and the people who lost their lives and lost loved ones in the horrible shooting that happened yesterday. You know, I love the Maya Angelou quote when someone tells you who they are, you believe them the first time. When Donald Trump went to the NRA headquarters and said, I'm going to work for you, I believed him. When he goes to billionaires and oil executives and says, you give me X amount of contributions and I will do everything I can to make sure you make more money, I believed him then. And what we're seeing now is him living up to the promises that he gave to the most wealthiest people in this country. Valuing profits over our lives and our livelihood as working people. The images that come to mind are the fact that yesterday there was a second grader on the floor on the phone with 911 to say that there was a shooter in the school. And while that second grader was on the floor making that call, their teacher was at the door with a pair of scissors ready to defend the lives of the kids in the classroom. But just a few months ago on the campaign trail, Donald Trump made it clear that he values the profits of the gun industry more than he values the lives of our children and our people. The images that come to mind are billionaires like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy walking through the halls of Congress talking about firing unelected bureaucrats when they're actually talking about civil servants and people who help make our government work. And this is Donald Trump living up to the promises he gave the wealthiest in this country that he would do everything he can for them. But he also lied to a bunch of us. He lied to the working class people because he's not fighting for us. I mean, just look at the fact that he's amassed one of the richest cabinets in the history of this country. I don't know how he expects, I mean, I don't expect a man worth $340 billion, Elon Musk, to decide what's going to happen with the agency for security administration that's going to administer my mother's $1,200 worth of security. So these are the things that we hope people will pay attention to over these next four years is that Donald Trump has lied to us, but he's living up to his promise to his billionaire friends. And he will continue to live up to the promise to the wealthiest people in this country. And that's why we're going to work hard as House Democrats, of course, to figure out where we can work with our Republican colleagues, but we're going to fight. We're going to fight for democracy no matter who you are, because we believe that seeing the world through the eyes of the most vulnerable is the best way to legislate, and that's what makes us different than the Republican Party. So thank you, and I'll see you next week. Thank you. Any one of the things that we're supposed to do is to try to make sure that our legislation is in place and that our campaigns are even publicly made. We obviously want to make sure that child health sensibilities are extended to the most vulnerable communities for why we want to have this campaign. And transparency for those people who have been marginalized and continue to be marginalized by the government for people who are on the streets and by people who have been marginalized by the government for being black or having been marginalized or being marginalized by the government on the street and by people who are being marginalized by the government that are infected by this virus. And then so the way that we're trying that our legislation is in place is to try to make sure that our campaigns We will begin in just a few minutes. Because they've never worked on their programs, they've only just done what they're told. So having people in different programs and different perspectives and different needs is helpful. And I have had, I can name names, I have had very real conversations with people about manufacturing, or, they're like, I didn't know that, I didn't know that, so I think it's good for people to talk to each other, to listen to each other, to hear one mouth for a reason. And so we should hope that as we go into the next year, I mean, Terrace is a good example where I remind my colleagues, Terrace are a tool in the toolbox. We need to listen to each other. And the other side can learn from us, we can learn from them. I believe in the quality of the details of these and the use of these. Thank you.