During a town hall on Thursday, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) slammed President Trump's actions since taking office.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Because nothing about what we are seeing is normal.
00:12We cannot let our fear of retribution stop us from speaking out.
00:26We cannot comply with Trump's efforts to roll us back to segregation, to discrimination,
00:33or even worse.
00:35We need to fight, fight, fight, fight for our country like our country depends on it.
00:44Because we deserve a democracy that works for us, run by people who respect their oath
00:54of office, respect our constitution, and respect the institutions that give it its
01:01strength.
01:02So before we do the Q&A, I want to remind you that our office serves as your liaison
01:17to every federal government.
01:19We can be a crucial line of advocacy for our constituents who are experiencing delays or
01:27irregularities or emergencies with the federal agencies.
01:32Although it is, again, a difficult environment right now, it is our duty to you to make sure
01:39that we are doing everything that we can.
01:42In the last few weeks, we have worked to restore social security benefits, figure out issues
01:46with tax returns, expedite work permits, and reunite families.
01:51We can't solve every problem, but we will do everything that we can to try and do that.
02:03We are excited to take some of your questions.
02:08So can we get in line now?
02:13I know we have about 30 minutes, so I will try to take as many questions as I can.
02:43We'll start on the right side.
03:02Thank you for representing me in DC.
03:06Thank you, it is an honor.
03:08Thank you for standing at the USAID building, for your editorial about Medicaid.
03:14Millions of lives aimed at Dallas.
03:17I was in Nairobi in 2004 when the PEPFAR program started at Nairobi Hospital.
03:25That program saved 25 million lives in 20 years.
03:31The AIDS pandemic is going to come back.
03:34We're going to have babies born HIV positive.
03:37We're going to have AIDS orphans all over Africa because of the USAID funding cut.
03:43Medicaid cut.
03:45In Minnesota, we lost 11 mental health facilities in one year because of Medicaid being too low.
03:51Al Green is right.
03:53Al Green stood up.
03:55We need Jedis like you and Al Green.
03:59Please, please, do anything you can to restore Medicaid, to restore USAID,
04:06because there's a verse in the Bible that everyone needs to study.
04:09Trump's Bible needs to be opened.
04:121 Timothy 8, the love of money is the root of all evil.
04:23Thank you so much for your comment.
04:27I know that there wasn't a question in there, but I want to say I am grateful for your advocacy as well over the years.
04:35You know, PEPFAR was a bipartisan program.
04:41It was championed by my mentor and former colleague, Barbara Lee.
04:46It was signed into law by President Bush.
04:52Over the years, it's been supported both by Republicans and Democrats, equally and alike,
04:59because we all understood how important it was for us to fight to eradicate HIV,
05:07to make sure that we were taking care of people, and to save lives.
05:11That is essentially what our humanity calls on us to do.
05:15We've been working really hard to try to make sure that even though they originally stopped the program,
05:23the restarting of it has been really slow.
05:25Many of these contractors are not getting to the people that need them.
05:29This is the recklessness of the way in which they are governing.
05:34They look at government as if it's something that you can turn off and turn back on.
05:42They don't have the ability to lead with precision.
05:49They don't have the ability to lead with knowledge.
05:53They don't have the ability to lead with a steady hand.
05:57And that is what government requires.
06:00There are always opportunities for people to come together to say,
06:08this program is not working in the way that it needs to.
06:12We balanced the budget in the State House when I was there.
06:16Our mayor knows that he balances the budget.
06:19Everybody knows that there is a way to work to make sure the budget is working the way that it's supposed to,
06:28to find ways to make things more efficient.
06:31But coming in and turning things off because they sound funny to you,
06:36and then recognizing, no, this is a life-saving program, and being, oops.
06:40That's not a way to run things.
06:45It might be a way that Elon Musk runs his businesses.
06:48It makes sense why they have the deficiencies that they have.
06:52But we cannot survive as people while our government is running that way.
06:58So thank you.
06:59That's it.
07:04Thank you, Congresswoman.
07:07So this is more of a message of national democracy, not to you specifically,
07:12but I have nowhere else to say it, so I'll say it here.
07:15That's why we have this time also.
07:18Say what you want to say.
07:21So the Democratic Party just seems to not have a grasp on how they should counter Trump
07:26and President Elon Musk.
07:31Trump has the highest approval ever, unfortunately,
07:34but the working people are suffering because of their devastating actions.
07:40We keep letting conservatives to control the narrative for many years on things like unions,
07:46social welfare, such as worker unions, and even now the podcast community,
07:51such as Joe Rogan.
07:52Remember once upon a time Joe Rogan was supposed to be more aggressive?
07:56Now it's completely dominated by conservatives and, anyway.
08:02So, you know, full of misinformation.
08:05So the best thing that the Democratic Party has done is standing up to their voters,
08:12not all their voters, but two of their voters,
08:15and heard Chuck Schumer give a lecture on why we should keep the government open
08:20when the people want them to fight.
08:23Meanwhile,
08:29Hakeem Jeffries' plan, according to what I saw,
08:32is to do nothing and hope that Trump will eventually become a popular.
08:38All that there is a focus on is to maintain the status quo.
08:43What are you going to do, and this is a question right now,
08:47what are you going to do to hold the Democratic Party accountable
08:51so they can start doing their actual work to stop Schumer from becoming president?
09:04I mean, I think everything you said is valid.
09:07We have been obsessed with figuring out the perfect message
09:12and not doing the perfect thing on behalf of working people.
09:16That has been problematic for us.
09:20You know, you've got a president who basically campaigned on Asians eating cats and dogs
09:27who is our president right now while Democrats were busy trying to figure out
09:31the perfect three sentences to put together to appeal to people clearly.
09:36That's not working.
09:39So I do think that there needs to be a sort of come to Jesus moment for Democrats
09:45to understand that this is not, and we are not divided by ideology.
09:53What we are divided by is generational.
09:57And it's happening in the reality of what is happening on the ground.
10:03You know, we have people who want to bring a knife to a gunfight
10:09and are not rising up to the moment, and I think the urgency of the moment
10:14that we are feeling is what the American people understand.
10:17I have not had a town hall with this many people since I've been elected.
10:26When I tell a town hall Tuesday night I have 17,000 people, that's insane.
10:31It's because the people are desperate for leadership.
10:34The people are desperate for courage.
10:36The people are desperate for bravery.
10:38And I do believe that it's not us telling Democrats what they should do in Washington.
10:45It's all of you showing them what they should be doing in Washington.
10:49So thank you very much.