IHIP News - Incompetent Administration From the Top Down with Sen. Raphael Warnock

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

Senator Raphael Warnock discusses DOGE, Elon Musk, and resisting the Trump administration. Pre-order our new book, join our Patreon Cult, and more by clicking here: https://linktr.ee/ivehaditpodcast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The most incompetent collection of human beings I have ever seen are being appointed to very powerful cabinet positions for a very powerful nation. And all of you out there listening and watching want there to be a glimmer of hope, a glimmer of resistance, and we have found someone. Let's welcome Senator Warnock to IHIP News. Hi, Senator. Hi, so good to be with you. Thank you. So today there's a vote on a rather incompetent, very unqualified individual by the name of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Yes, indeed, there is a vote. I'm a member of the Finance Committee, and I have met with Robert F. Kennedy. I met with him here in my office prior to the hearings. And look, this is someone who is manifestly unqualified for the job that he seeks.

And if you listen to his answers, you will see that he really doesn't understand the job. He doesn't he will be in charge of our Medicaid and Medicare system. You're talking about HHS, which is about twenty nine, 30 percent of the federal budget. And he's manifestly unqualified. In addition to that, he is a man who chases conspiracy theories, and he will be distracted by that even as we deal with potential deadly pandemics. The last thing we need at the HHS is a dilettante and someone who dabbles in conspiracy theories. We need a serious-minded person who is competent for the job. He is the very picture of privilege and entitlement. That's the only reason he's sitting there.

And I think we ought to listen to his family. They seem to know him best. You know, it's very we all feel very helpless watching because you say that he's a conspiracy theorist. You say that he's unqualified. I feel like that's the top of the ticket all the way down. I feel like it is just breathtaking incompetence, wildly dangerous. And it feels like that, like Marco Rubio, he kind of skated through.

But now look at the stunts he's pulling with USAID. It feels like the Democrats need to take a position that, yes, Donald Trump is president, but he's a convicted felon. He's a con man. He's bankrupted casinos. He's unqualified. And therefore, anybody that thinks that that man is qualified and wants to work for him is equally unqualified. And there's this thirst out in the American public for you all to just have like fangs and be like this big wall of resistance. And we saw a little bit of that yesterday, but where are you and your colleagues, as we see with the nefarious plans and the rapid rate at which the shadow government is forming, where are you and your colleagues as far as

putting up resistance to not just Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but the president, the vice president, Elon Musk, etc.? Well, my job as a United States senator is advise and consent for all of the nominees. And in spite of this rabid effort on behalf of the Trump administration to sort of roll the legislative branch of Congress to threaten senators on their side of the aisle, for example, with the prospects of a primary and therefore to just roll them into saying yes. I think that the judgment of history is on us in this moment.

And more importantly, the people at home right now are counting on us to make sure that the American government doesn't look like Hungary or some of these other places. We are a democratic republic. I take seriously my job of advise and consent. I look at each nominee. I am certainly informed by the overall context, as you've described it. What we've seen over the last couple of weeks is nothing short of scary and concerning. And so I'm going to use every tool I can to protect the people of Georgia, where their health and well-being is concerned, from the likes of Robert Kennedy. I'm going to stand up time and time again, insisting on doing my job as a senator, advise and consent, raise the issues. But the truth is, look, if you got all no votes from the Democrats, the only the only people who can actually stop this in terms of the nominations where the Senate's process is concerned is Republicans. They've got to decide if they're more committed to partisan interests or they're committed to the people that they were sent here to represent.

Meanwhile, I'm continuing to engage them. As Robert Kennedy comes up, we've got a doctor on the other side of the aisle, somebody I know and appreciate, actually. Who knows that Robert Kennedy is manifestly unprepared, unqualified, and unfit? We'll see how they vote. Angie? I was wondering, I'm very concerned about Elon Musk and his going into government agencies, what I view to be just on its face, illegal activity, illegal access. And there has been no resistance from the Trump administration. In fact, it feels like he's applauding this kind of behavior. So we have a private citizen in charge of a new quote unquote

Doge agency. What can Congress do to stop the threat of Elon Musk? Yeah, let me be very clear. It's not even an agency. What is Doge? I mean, it's not an official part of the government. It was not set up by any statute. And who is Elon Musk? He wasn't elected by anybody. And he certainly hasn't been vetted. He's not a nominee who goes through the process of a vetting. And now to give him access to sensitive data of our United States government is way beyond the pale. And even as we speak, I'm exploring every option. As a member of the Finance Committee, I'm talking to the chair of the Finance Committee, all of my colleagues, we have to stand up in this moment and fight for our values, fight for the idea that this is government for and by the people. And we don't need a co-president, Elon Musk,

directing our government and doing to these various agencies what he did to Twitter. Senator, it seems like the Trump administration has unleashed a level that used to be kind of covert, racist dog whistles to now it's very overt. It's very alarming. It's very damaging to our country and to marginalized communities. But recently, Trump hired a State Department speechwriter,

Darren Beatty, who tweeted that competent white men must be in charge. How do you respond to this overt racism that seems to be simmering up and it's normalized? It's all getting normalized because this to me is one of the most terrifying, regressive things that's coming out of the Trump administration is all of the work that we have done to try to lift up marginalized communities and make this country more fair and equitable for everyone. It seems like now, you know, by their logic, only competent white men, by their logic, they just disqualified their entire slate. But I digress. What is your response to this type of language and hiring of these types of people? Well, obviously, as the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. served, I'm deeply sensitive to this kind of language. I know how

dangerous it is and how divisive it is in our country. and all of us should be paying attention and pushing back really hard against this rhetoric. But think for a minute about the sad irony. It's almost laughable, except that it's so tragic, that at this moment in which we're seeing this onslaught on anything that represents diversity, equity, and inclusion, that they're putting up these manifestly unqualified people to run our various departments. Literally, like, who may, why is Robert Kennedy qualified to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services? What in his background, when you think about all the folks who actually prepare for a job like that, suggests that he ought to be running that entity?

Why is Pete Hegseth the Secretary of Defense? Like this is dangerous stuff. And this is how privilege works, that you could be so blind that you ignore the obvious. Don't lecture me on diversity, equity and inclusion while putting up the most manifestly unqualified people that we can imagine. And this has consequences. The person with the biggest microphone on the planet stand up last week in the wake of a terrible midair collision between a Black Hawk helicopter and a commercial airline airliner. waters of the Potomac. While those brave service members were literally still strapped into their seats and their helicopter in those waters, we saw the man with the biggest microphone on the planet stand up and say, I know what happened. It's those people, those Black people, people of color and women. It's DEI. DEI crashed the plane.

And it's it's it's it's unhelpful. It's tragic. It has consequences because part of the reason why we have the save the safest aviation system on the planet is because we've always left politics out of it. And so get out of the way, let the NTSB do its job, stop trying to divide us, especially in a moment like this with all the things that we've got to do to make sure that people have food on their tables, that they have access to medicine, that we can meet the needs of ordinary people. These kinds of distractions, uh, put them at risk and they put our national security at risk as well. Senator, thank you so much. Thank you so much for your time. You're welcome back anytime to message to a very thirsty people ready

for the resistance to this nightmare. We are al wish you the best of luck