IHIP News - Senate Dems Pull All-Nighter to FIGHT MAGA and Project 2025 Part 2

Episode Date: February 6, 2025

Jen and Pump's are joined by 4 senators currently filibustering the Trump's OMB Nominee. In this episode they are joined by Senator Coons to discuss what needs to be done. 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.

Two and a half weeks into convicted felon Donald Trump's second term, he has already saying that he wants the United States to occupy Gaza. He doubled down in a truth social tweet this morning that he can't wait to develop it with all of these partners, these imaginary partners that he has. You may remember the viral image of a senator doing a face palm when he heard this news. Senator Chris Koontz is here. How are you? Oh, I tell you, Angie, Jennifer, it's great to be on with you, but I've already had it in just two weeks. I can't believe how much craziness we've had to go through.

And you're right. I had just walked off the floor of the Senate. I had been working and working with colleagues to say to them, you cannot allow this shutdown of all U.S. foreign aid. It's crazy. It's going to make Americans less safe. It's going to help the Chinese. It's going to hurt us globally.

And I walk out and there's a group of five reporters and they say, what's your response to Donald Trump saying we're going to invade to tell you, my view of what this is, is it's a distraction. He's like, don't look here, don't look here, don't look here. He's got his doge boy, Elon Musk, and his team burrowing into your personal data at the Treasury Department, going in and trying to take down agencies that protect our safety and promote our health and are critical to education and a whole lot of other things. And meanwhile, we're talking about his crazy plan to occupy Gaza, which I don't think is serious one bit. I don't think we could ever credibly pull off. And nobody thinks it's a good idea. But he wants us talking about that, not about the ways that he and the guy he's nominated to run OMB are tearing apart our federal government and getting into your personal information.

Does this feel like a coup to you with the Elon Musk's actions? And then if this Project 2025 guy gets in, the dismantling of the federal government and placing in all of these Trump loyalists that have no interest in democracy whatsoever. The rapid rate that they're moving feels like what people that overthrow government do. It feels like a coup. Yes. And I'll tell you, as I campaigned across the country for Vice President Harris, I said over and over to groups of voters, they've got a plan. It's Project 2025, written largely by a guy named Russell Vogt. You've never heard of him, but he's with Heritage, and he's going to drive this plan for how to take over the federal government and shut down huge parts of it. That's what they're doing. What they also talked about on the campaign trail was that Elon Musk was going to

run some organization. The scary thing and the striking thing about this is how few Republicans are speaking up and saying anything against it as they are tearing down our role in Congress, as they are leveling things that Republicans have supported for years. Federal courts have blocked a few of the things that they are doing and trying to do. And federal courts, I hope and pray, will block some of the violations of privacy, some of the ways that they're trying to shut down grants that have already been given to everything from daycares to senior centers to feeding hungry kids around the world. But bluntly, they are moving fast. They are moving aggressively. And we need the engagement and voice effectively of folks who are as alarmed about this as I am. That's why Democrats held the floor all

night last night and were holding the floor all day today, giving speeches and mobilizing people to be clear that this guy, Russell Vogt, who's going to run the most important agency you've never heard of, OMB, is the center of them getting into and taking over key parts of the federal government, whether it's the Department of Education, the Veterans Administration, or the one I've been agitated about, USAIDID that does foreign aid. Angie? So Russell Vogt, we know he's a Christian nationalist. We know he authored Project 2025. In his capacity, if he were to be confirmed of the Office of Budget Management, how could he impact what he wants to do in Project 2025 in that role? So OMB is the air traffic controller of the federal government. It's this central entity that takes in all the budget proposals from all the different

federal agencies and then approves or disapproves disbursement or spending. It puts him right at the very center of what the federal government does operationally year in and year out. And before he's even confirmed, as he's sort of the shadow director of OMB, he's been helping drive these shutdowns. What they're doing that is illegal and unconstitutional is not just shaping what we're going to approve for spending next year, but reaching back and shutting down funding that we'd already voted on, that the president, President Biden, had already signed off on. So it's in law and it was on its way out to lots of different organizations. In the first week, Trump signed an executive order freezing all domestic grants.

That's what I was talking about when I said from daycares to senior centers, from fire departments to elementary schools. A federal district court judge in Rhode Island, Judge McConnell, in an action brought by the Attorney General of Delaware and a dozen other states, blocked that, issued what's called an injunction. That has put on hold, for now, issued what's called an injunction. That has put on hold for now that domestic funding freeze. But they're grinding ahead. They're moving fast to shut down USAID, the foreign aid thing I've been talking about. Now they're coming after the Department of

Education. They're coming after NOAA, the thing that does weather, that tells you whether or not there's a tornado coming your way in Oklahoma and when to get out of the way. There are lots of parts of the federal government that your average person doesn't know about, hasn't heard of, isn't sure exactly how it all works. And they're telling the right wing and Fox is spinning it up and the Republicans are backing it that, oh, no, no, no, they're just trimming the fat. They're just cutting some excess. They're just trimming the fat. They're just cutting some excess. They're just getting rid of the woke-ism from foreign aid. Well, that's not what Project 2025 was about. When Elon Musk says he wants to cut a trillion or $2 trillion out of the federal government,

and you look at Project 2025, they're talking about coming after Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, veterans programs, for them to have the money to give away in a huge tax cut to the richest Americans and most profitable companies. Let's be clear about what this whole effort is really about. It's not about cutting federal spending. It's about giving that away to the folks who supported Donald Trump's campaign. Elon Musk gave Donald Trump hundreds of millions of dollars to help catapult himself into an unelected position of immense power to benefit himself. This is a guy who does a huge amount of business in China. He's the richest man on earth, and he does not have your best interests at heart as he's trying to slash federal spending. He's going to redirect it to the rich guys who back Donald Trump.

OK, let's lighten this up a little bit and do some light Marco Rubio bashing. OK, I mean, this guy is such an abject disappointment. You worked with him for years. He knows better. He was a right winger, no question a right winger, but believed in democracy, believed in democratic principles. And now he's tweeting, let's make Gaza beautiful again. And then he is talking about South Africa and being punitive to South Africa. And that's doing Elon Musk's bidding because South Africa denied Starlink a contract. How disappointing on a personal level, somebody that you worked with for years, seeing them completely, their spine completely evaporate. How personally disappointing is that for you? And what do you think this is? Remember

in the 80s when we grew up, it was like, this is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any question? I think that this is what happens with MAGA. Like once their brain gets on MAGA, you have somebody like Marco Rubio, who is just a complete coward. I mean, Donald Trump used to browbeat him, eviscerated him, and now he's just like his little lapdog. It's so pathetic. So let's just gossip about little Marco right now. Let me tell you about someone I am proud of who I got to see this past week, and then that's the contrast. Jeff Flake. Senator Flake, who was a senator from Arizona, one of the most conservative adult humans I've ever met. I mean, this guy has a voting record that's way out there right wing.

When Donald Trump first came to the Republican Senate caucus, he stood up and challenged him and said, wait a minute. The things you're talking about, the language you're using, the way you're going about this is not conservatism. This is craziness. And Trump really took him on personally, went after him, attacked him, challenged him, tested him the exact same way he did with Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and a lot of other senators. And ultimately, Jeff Flake said, I'm out. I can't I'm not I'm not going to suck up to this guy if that's what it takes for me to run and win re-election. And then he endorsed Joe Biden, which for a guy of his background and his political values, I mean, that cost him half his family. Never going to speak to him again. He's been our ambassador to Turkey for the last four years as a part of the Biden administration. And he just got back.

And I had a chance to talk with him and his wife, Cheryl, this past week. I think he did the principled thing. When you've got someone like Ted Cruz, where Donald Trump in the course of the 2016 campaign attacks his wife and his mother viciously and publicly, excuse me, his wife and his father. But, you know, with Donald Trump, he's an equal opportunity insulter to then sort of come crawling back and then like get up on stage and say Donald Trump's a wonderful guy and I embrace him and he's the right vision. What you're describing is what I have seen far too many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle do, even though they privately know better and they recognize that Donald Trump is not a conservative and is

abandoning some of the things they've been committed to for years. Liz Cheney, I think, is a hero because she took her political career and set it on fire in order to stand up to a guy destroying her party and its character. One of my favorite quotes is, you know, Donald Trump will be gone, but your dishonor will live on. So as someone on the January 6th committee, as someone who stood up to her own caucus and her own party, Liz Cheney, who, look, we disagree a lot on policy issues, but she had the courage of her convictions. Secretary Rubio knows better. He knows that our foreign aid programs keep us safe, push back on China, help protect us overseas, and are not being treated appropriately. He knows they're being shut down. And it's disappointing to see him sort of piling on on some of the wilder things that Donald Trump is asking him to sign up for. The United States is going to take back the Panama Canal. We're going

to absorb Greenland. We're going to invade and occupy Gaza. I mean, to be on the Trump train means to sell a part of your soul. And that's a very challenging place to be. Angie, last question. The transparency issue I have such a problem with, with Elon Musk situation going in, taking private data, Russell Vote, transparency issues because Donald Trump lied about what he believed. You know, I don't know anything about Project 2025. Is there anything? Who is that? What's how can we ensure transparency in these Doge committee when it's not even a real committee? I mean, is there any way to get transparency in this time? So I want to encourage folks to support and reach out to a group called Democracy Forward.

States attorneys general like Kathy, who's the attorney general, Kathy Jennings, the Attorney General of Delaware, a neighbor and a friend, have brought a whole series of lawsuits. But Democracy Forward is a nonprofit group that is also bringing lawsuits. A lawsuit based in the Privacy Act is the most likely successful path towards testing and blocking the unconstitutional actions of doge to get into federal information systems and compromise the personally identifying data of millions and millions of americans if you're following what's happening at the cia at the fbi at the veterans administration they are compromising our safety our our national security, and your privacy. And federal litigation is the best way to get a restraining order or an injunction to stop this. Pulling these folks back out of these systems and restoring your privacy protections is

going to be very hard work. And it's going to require us winning back a chamber of Congress to have some leverage in our system. The midterms are going to be critical. We need folks to show up. If you're watching this and you're outraged, if you're sick of this, if you've had enough, me too. But we need your voice and your engagement. Look, I understand folks, after the loss of the 24 election, many of us were frustrated, disappointed, unsure exactly how to go forward. In Donald Trump, you have an almost comic book villain who is teaming up with Elon Musk

to tear down things that have helped support our families, our communities, and our place in the world. And we need to link arms and work really hard to make sure that we get back what is ours, a republic, a place that is safe and decent, a place that is inclusive, and a place we're proud of. So let's do that together. And I really appreciate the chance to be on with you today and to connect with all the great folks who watch or listen to this podcast. Senator Coons, thank you so much. And we just want to say we want you to vote no to everything that MFR puts in front of you, every single bit of it,

all of it. We want you guys to be like kryptonite and hold the line. It's so important to all of us to know that you all are fighting. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. Great to be on with you.