LEMON DROP | Don On The Scene With Senator Chris Coons: MAGA Won't Work With Dems
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How imminent is the government shutdown and what timeline is Senator Coons describing?
How you been? It's been quite a year. I want to talk to you, obviously, about Cash Patel, the questioning in front of the Senate. But I also want to talk about, you've got, what, two weeks now to fund the government? If that's not a real two weeks.
Oh, no, because we're here in session until tomorrow. And then we're all out for next week for the Jewish High Holy Days. So there's not even two calendar weeks to shut down. But we are frankly here maybe one more or at most two more days. So first, I think we'll get called back into session. You do. Yeah. Yeah. There's no way that we go all the way to the 30th without coming back to vote on a CR. And right now, the Republican leadership of the House and Senate have never sat down with the Democratic leadership of the House and Senate to just have a conversation. What are we trying to do here? What's the goal of our appropriations this year? What are our views on the way that Trump has been cutting existing appropriated programs?
And what's their view on where are we going? Without that conversation, you can't resolve anything like that. Are they listening? Are they open to having a conversation with you? Or is it their way or the highway? Leadership, their way or the highway. Appropriators... They've been having very good and constructive conversations. But just a few days ago, Speaker Johnson polled the Approps Chair in the House, Tom Cole, and said, stop. Stop negotiating with them. We're just going ahead with a Republican-only CR. Not a great idea. So that means we're in for a showdown. Absolutely. That's not good for the American people. No. And the thing that most folks... You know, look, a government shutdown, most people aren't really clear what that means.
The longest shutdown in American history was 35 days. And it happened the last time Trump was president. Now, everybody who works here and most federal employees get paid back for the 35 days they missed. Contractors don't. And there are thousands of people who clean the buildings, who do the food service, who, you know, do the landscaping. There's federal facilities all over our country. And those thousands and thousands of people, they never get paid. It's basically an unpaid 35 days off.
And do you think that they realize that they're playing, I mean, quite literally with people's lives? Definitely their livelihoods, but their lives as well.
So one of the things we are pushing in the Democratic caucus is you guys have done huge damage to health care for millions of Americans, both with how you're cutting funding for cancer research and how your so-called big, beautiful bill. cuts support for the affordable care act health insurance and cuts medicaid we want them to roll some of that back and the republicans i'm talking to will say privately yeah we realize we overdid it and rural hospitals are going to close and people in treatment mental health or substance abuse treatment are going to get thrown out wait times at emergency rooms are going to get worse and we're saying then do something do something yeah and right now the answer is
Okay.
I watched you and others this week with Kash Patel, and I'm concerned about law enforcement in this country from watching that. Just having a modicum of respect for the institution and the senators and our democracy and the government, what's happening? What is happening? People at home are going, I can't believe I'm watching this.
The level... The level of belligerence and disrespect, in particular to Senators Durbin and Schiff and Booker, was really striking.
Why does Senator Coons say Republicans and Democrats haven't negotiated on appropriations?
Just yelling at them and accusing them of all sorts of things. An oversight hearing is a chance for senators of both parties to ask tough questions. That's what oversight is. And the first time he got volcanically angry at Senator Durbin was around some recent firings where Durbin was asking about the political motivations behind these firings in the FBI. I asked about the hundreds and hundreds of agents who have been forced into early retirement, who've been riffed or who took the fork in the road and what the impact is.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
How imminent is the government shutdown and what timeline is Senator Coons describing?
0:14–4:16
2
Why does Senator Coons say Republicans and Democrats haven't negotiated on appropriations?
4:16–9:16
3
What would a government shutdown actually cost federal workers and contractors?
9:16–15:05
4
How does Senator Coons assess recent Republican budget cuts' impact on health care and rural hospitals?
15:05–18:09
5
What happened during the Kash Patel hearing and why is it worrying for law enforcement norms?
18:09–19:24
Speakers
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