'They Call It A Skirmish': Schumer, Klobuchar, Merkley Hammer Trump's Iran War In Fiery PC | US News

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for Senator Clolobachar and Mkeley for being here with me today. And first we had a great caucus, the highlight of which was the Artemis astronauts coming in and telling us their story and taking pictures with these brave Americans that brings us all together at a time of such disunityity. So there was a great joy at the end of our caucus when the four great astronauts walked in. Now to a more serious matter. not more serious but less happy matter. If you want to understand Republican priorities, just look at their reconciliation bill.

[00:00:37]Prices are rising, families are hurting, Americans know exactly who is making it worse. A CNN poll this morning said 77% say Trump has raised their costs. What is the GOP response? A billion dollar ballroom. fancy, goldplated.

[00:00:57]It's outrageous.

[00:01:00]Only 30% of the people approve of Trump's handling of the economy.

[00:01:05]Americans are distressed. Their economic situation in three words: uncertainty, stress, dread. It's true. Families gather at the dinner table after a meal and dread looking at the bills and saying, "How are they going to pay this one and not this one? Which one should they pay? which one shouldn't they pay?

[00:01:25]And when you think of the needs, for instance, of your kids or maybe your elderly parents, and you can't really do what's needed for them, it's dread and ache.

[00:01:36]What are Trump and the Republicans doing about these these awful conditions? Not lowering grocery costs, not lowering gas prices or housing or electricity or health care costs. Nope.

[00:01:50]What are they doing?

[00:01:52]Instead of cleaning up the chaos they created, Republicans are pushing a bill that pulls pours billions more into Trump's raids and mass agents and sticks pay taxpayers with a bill for Trump's billion ballroom. A billion dollar ballroom. These are the ballroom Republicans.

[00:02:15]At the very moment Americans are pleading for relief, Republicans are telling them, "Pay for Trump's palace first."

[00:02:25]This bill has zero dollars to lower costs for families. Here's their second reconciliation bill. It's their second chance to show what they got. They got nothing for the American people and a ballroom for Donald Trump.

[00:02:40]The bill has zero dollars, as I said, for reducing cost to families, but somehow comes up with a billion dollars for Trump's vanity project.

[00:02:49]Trump said not one penny of federal money would be used for the ballroom.

[00:02:53]Well, give me a break. Another lie.

[00:02:55]There's lie after lie after lie, and the American people are wise to it. These Republicans, these ballroom Republicans are choosing Trump's chandelier over your child care. Trump's ego over your electric bill. Trump's palace over the people's priorities.

[00:03:13]Did everyone hear that alliteration?

[00:03:19]>> Americans want relief. Americans are answering and saying, "Give us relief." But the Republicans just say we were going to give you a ballroom. That's not leadership. That's Versailles economics brought to you by the ballroom Republicans. Democrats will fight this bill tooth and nail. We're already filing bird rule challenges. We'll offer amendments and we'll force Republicans to vote again and again on one simple question. Are you with work working families or you with Trump's ballroom?

[00:03:54]Americans don't want a ballroom blitz.

[00:03:57]They want Congress to bring the cost down. And on the war powers vote tomorrow. Tomorrow, Republicans face another major choice. For the seventh time, Senate Democrats will force a vote on our war powers resolution to withdraw American troops from hostilities with Iran.

[00:04:16]This is the first vote since Trump's war crossed the 60-day threshold under the War Powers Act. Once the 60-day clock runs out, the president has two choices.

[00:04:26]Get authorization from Congress or end the hostilities.

[00:04:34]Donald Trump's done neither. He has dragged America into an illegal, costly war with no authorization, no clear objective, no end in sight. The administration can play word games all at once. They call it a skirmish, a mini war, a blip, a love tap. They said this is a love tap. Give me a break. This is a war. You just can turn on your television, look into your iPhone, and you'll see it's a war. And Hegth just said it out loud again. Quote, "We are 74 days into this." That was his quote.

[00:05:12]And Americans are paying for it. Surface members are in harm's way. Families are getting hit with the pump. and gas prices are now over 450 a gallon. Trump started this war and families are paying for it every time they fill up at the tank. Republicans will have their seventh chance to do the right thing, the first since the 60-day deadline passed. They can stand up and do their job for their constituents.

[00:05:38]They can protect our service members.

[00:05:40]They can help stop the chaos driving up costs. Or they can keep backing Trump's war. There are no excuses left. No president should be able to drag this country into war alone. Not now. Not ever. Senator Clolobachar.

[00:06:00]>> Thank you.

[00:06:03]>> Thank you very much, Chuck. So this morning the inflation report was out and inflation rose 3.8%, the highest of Donald Trump's presidency. Energy prices are through the roof. Groceries are up. Housing is up. Prices are so high that for the first time in years, they've wiped out the wage growth that Americans have earned. I was just on a tour of western Minnesota in towns from Marshall to Lichfield to Wilmer. They may not just roll off your tongue, but I can tell you right now, the last thing that those people want funded right now is a ballroom.

[00:06:45]I met with them about child care businesses who are going to be unable to hire employees. They want to hire them.

[00:06:52]The employees want to work for them, but they don't have child care. Gas prices now in Minnesota that have tended to be a little lower than the rest of the country, but they've now gone up over four bucks. Diesel prices up over five bucks. Farmers already hit by the tariffs. Now it costs more to bring their goods to market. And now you have fertilizer prices. And I'm going to have to leave right after this because Senator Boseman and I are doing a hearing on fertilizer prices.

[00:07:20]50% of the ura that goes into fertilizer goes through the straits of Hormuz. 30% 30% of the ammonia that's another ingredient goes through the Straits of Hormuz. Then you add to that the tariffs on fertilizer with other countries. You can imagine what's happening. As I've told you before, as one farmer called it, it is a perfect storm of ugly. So, what do we have before us? Are we working on that? No. It's another reconciliation to write yet another blank check for ICE. $70 billion plus this money for the ballroom. They want to spend this money on ICE. And I don't think they must be talking to the people that I'm talking to out in these small towns because I can tell them what 70 billion would pay for. 200,000 local law enforcement officers for three years.

[00:08:14]Having talked to local sheriffs, that's something that people need. Extending the health care premium tax credits for two years, not just one year, two years.

[00:08:23]providing seniors with dental, vision, and hearing coverage through Medicare for an entire year. Building 700,000 affordable homes. That's what we could do with that $70 billion. And providing child care for 3.5 million children. So the question before us is simple. Where do you want to spend that money? On a gilded ballroom or on healthcare?

[00:08:51]on ICE when they won't even do any reforms and they got this huge increase that made ICE bigger than the Marines and bigger than the FBI. Do you want to spend more on them or do you want to spend it on housing? The American people have answered and that is why the president's approval ratings are lower than they've ever been and so many polling places have had to actually add a quintile to where he stands on running the economy because it is now in the low30s. With that, I turn it over to Senator Mkeley.

[00:09:28]>> Well, the the families uh of organ and America, they're pressed the wall. I held nine town halls throughout Eastern Oregon over the break and uh people are pretty unhappy.

[00:09:43]They're unhappy that in Oregon gas is over five bucks a gallon. Diesels over six bucks a gallon. They're unhappy that the health care costs went up and that the tax credits that helped them pay for it went away. They're unhappy that the groceries are up. They are unhappy about the cost of rent and home ownership going up. They're unhappy because they are pressed the wall. And what is the Republican answer to all of this? the ballroom boondoggle, >> a Louis the 14th massive edifice that turns the White House into an auxiliary dwelling unit. This is hardly the vision for a democratic republic, possibly the vision for a dictator, possibly the vision for a strong man, possibly the vision for an authoritarian state, but not a vision for a democratic republic.

[00:10:42]And the rest of their bill, the rest of their bill doesn't do a damn thing for those health care, gasoline, housing, grocery costs, or inflation going up at 3.8%, the highest rate in three years. There's something else going on here that's important to address. The Republicans are turning reconciliation into an appropriations bill process.

[00:11:13]You know, reconciliation was passed by every single senator voting for it. Not one was against it. Why? Solely it was reserved for reducing deficits.

[00:11:23]Well, Republicans nuked it. They did a nuclear option back in 1996 and they said, "You know what? We can now use this to increase costs, increase deficits rather than decreasing them." a massive violation of how a 100 senators had come together. And they did that so they could do tax bills. But now tax bills that gave away our treasury, the richest Americans. But now they're proceeding to say we will just do regular appropriation bills. We are going to fund ICE and CBP a massive amount. Even though ICE and CBP are already sitting on $103 billion of unobligated funds, funds that will never be exhausted during this coming financial year, and they're doing it for this ballroom boondoggle.

[00:12:14]Recognize that neither of these was essential. $103 billion of unobligated funds for ICE CBP.

[00:12:22]And why not go through the regular appropriations process if you want to build a ballroom? Well, so this is something that we will see reverberating for years to come. The steady destruction of the norms and processes of the Senate, destroying bipartisan collaboration on spending bills. An important point to note, but more important at this moment, all this being done not to give a single penny to help a single family on a single issue where they're pressed to the wall.

[00:12:52]>> Thanks, Jeff. Question.

[00:12:55]>> Yes.

[00:12:55]>> Thank you. Uh, what is your level of confidence today that you'll ultimately get 51 votes to either remove or redirect ballroom funding since that's clearly a focus of Democrats?

[00:13:04]>> Look, the bottom line is this ballroom is a disgrace. The Republicans know it.

[00:13:09]Let's see if they have the guts to do what they know is right, both substantively and politically, and tell Trump we don't need a gut. We don't need a damn ballroom.

[00:13:19]>> Would you support suspending the federal gas tax to help Americans afford their bills?

[00:13:26]>> Look, Americans need real relief. 18 cents isn't enough. If Trump wants to give real relief to Americans, end the damn war, that's a $150. It's a lot more than 18 cents.

[00:13:37]>> Yes.

[00:13:40]You got to speak a little louder.

[00:13:50]>> Senate Democrat strategy.

[00:13:52]>> We already have task forces meeting with outside uh groups, lawyers, um and we are um red teaming anything they might do. Trump knows he's going to lose this election because he's so out of touch with the American people. So, he's going to try to steal it. He tried one way in 2020. He's going to try many ways now.

[00:14:12]We are prepared and we're going to fight him and succeed every step of the way.

[00:14:16]Yes.

[00:14:17]>> Senator, are you going to vote for Kennedy resolution tomorrow to prevent senators from being paid for shut down?

[00:14:23]Yes. You expect you expect that to pass?

[00:14:26]>> I'm going to vote for it and I think it has a lot of support.

[00:14:29]Okay. Yes. Back there. Yes. Yeah. No, you you >> Thank you. Thank you, Leadersh. asked a little bit about crypto legislation. I know you had a meeting with some of the Senate Democrats about it today. I'm just wondering if you think that this is a bill that Democrats need to work to get across the finish line or if there are enough concerns that you're just hoping.

[00:14:49]>> Look, we'd like to see a good crypto bill pass and our senators on the uh banking committee and on the ad committee are working diligently towards that goal. They're making good progress, but we're not there yet.

[00:15:01]>> Thank you everybody.

[00:15:14]>> [music]