During a House Democratic Leadership press briefing on Wednesday, Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) was asked how Democrats can gain support on controversial social issues.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Thank you, Congresswoman. Thank you all for doing this. I know that past Democrats have coalesced around a message around the economy and letting folks know that
00:09It's what people care about.
00:11Republicans feel that they have a winning message on issues like immigration, public safety, cultural issues like trans rights. Sometimes they bring bills to the floor for some of those issues.
00:24Democrats kind of didn't have an answer during the election for some of these kind of culture war attacks. Do you all feel that you've shorted that up going into 2026, especially on the cultural war issues?
00:54A lot of people in this country might not fully understand what it means to be a trans person. They might still be figuring that out, etc. But most people in this country are against discrimination.
01:07Most people in this country don't want people to be bullied. And that's what we leaned in on, the Child Predator Empowerment Act. That's something people can understand and get.
01:16And I encourage people to go back and look at that House debate because the Republicans were caught off guard because this is an issue that, yes, they have tried to capitalize on and fill a void, but we're standing strong.
01:28And we had from the most moderate members to the most progressive members and everyone in between on the same accord talking about the same message during that debate on the news.
01:36Hell, even Fox News was calling it the Child Predator Empowerment Act, too. And then because we stood strong, our colleagues in the Senate stood strong, and it did not make it to the president's desk.
01:46That's how we win, being unified on a message that everyone can get behind and that most Americans are in that position anyway.
01:54Yeah, I'm going to add something. Just because we've all done multiple town meetings and I have many more scheduled next week, I think it's really important to sort of elevate the actual issues that walk through the door.
02:11If I'm shopping at my grocery store or if I'm in a town hall, people are scared right now. They're scared that they're not going to have health care. They're scared that their parents aren't going to have their Social Security checks or Medicaid for assisted living.
02:27They are frightened that these core programs are going to compound the problems that they already have, which is when they go to the grocery store, they're panicked when they're at the register.
02:37And they're watching their 401ks go down the tubes because of tariffs put on our largest trading partner and our allies. This is irresponsible.
02:48So there's a lot of things that Republicans want to talk about. There's a lot of things that they want to put their campaign donations behind.
02:55But we're in touch with the American people because we face them every chance we get and we listen to them. Republicans aren't doing that.
03:03Not only are they not facing their constituents as their representative, but they're allowing Elon Musk, someone who hasn't filed a financial disclosure, has a ton of conflict of interest.
03:15He is actually doing their job for them. So it's unacceptable.
03:20It's unacceptable. People are rightfully scared and we are going to do whatever it takes to meet them where they are, assuage their concerns, use every tool that we have to fight for them and win in 2026 so that we can get back the majority.
03:35I was just going to add, it's really clear that the House Republicans, at least number one priority, is this big tax bill that they're working on.
03:44Let's talk about their priorities in the tax bill. $880 billion cut in Medicaid. That's people's health care. Not just working people. Kids. Seniors.
03:56Donald Trump's own pollster put out a memo about two weeks ago that said the number one issue on the mind of Trump voters when it came to a tax plan was to extend the ACA tax credits.
04:09And these guys don't even want to have that conversation. They want to compound the harm by kicking people off their health care.
04:17I mean, the contrast could not be more clear. They're doing all of this in service of tax cuts to billionaires. They're billionaire donors.
04:29And I don't think that we should be distracted when we see polling data on issues like policies, what should be in the tax plan. We should not be distracted when we see polling head to head and people are asked, what's the number one issue that you vote on?
04:47And then you see a party make their number one priority tax cuts for billionaires. They are the ones that are out of touch. We are the ones working hard for working people.